The Icy Pirate
by Dawn Totadile
Summary: Pirates and Wizards were never supposed to mix. It's some sort of taboo. Anything created from that is supposed to be too powerful to control. Young Aurora Dove is an orphan from Marelybone, and her best friend, Ashlea Firestone is about to find out just what can happen when a child of such a taboo is left to her own devices. Welcome aboard for the ride, mateys. Rated for language.
1. Chapter 1

Pirates and wizards should never have mixed. That was what everyone said at least, but sometimes rules are broken. Alura Dusksong, a new wizard in the school of Ice knew this better than anyone. Though she was an eighteen year old girl, she still had problems with what others called reality of facts. Alura looked around the commons of Ravenwood's school for Wizardry in Wizard City and felt a shiver race up her spine.

She ducked just in time to avoid a blast from a fire wizard. "Whoops, sorry. Lost control for a bit. You okay?" Alura looked up to find a young Pyromancer that she hadn't seen in five years. "Aurora?"

"It's Alura now, Ash, but yeah." Alura smiled wide like a child at Christmas. "Nice to see you again, Ashlea." She pulled some of her blonde hair away from her eyes and tucked it behind her ears. She then adjusted her silver glasses and smirked.

"You too, what are ya doing here? I heard you got caught by the Armada and dragged halfway across the spiral."

"I was… and farther… on my way back, I found that I had powers from the school of ice and well… here I am." Alura shrugged.

"OH! That's why you're going by Alura! It's your new codename! Awesome. Mine's Ash Firestone. What's your full name?"

"Heh, Alura Dusksong. Guess we still have a lot in common, huh?"

"Yeah. Wizard powers up the whazoo… you still say that, don't you?" The brown skinned wizard asked. She had brown hair and bright brown eyes, but her hair also had streaks of pink in it at the edges. She was wearing a set of fiery red robes with just the right amount of black to set it off nicely.

Alura laughed as they started walking to the school of Ice. "Of course I do, Ash. I'm just surprised you're using my nickname that I gave you when we were kids. How have you been?"

"I've been well. I kick butt all over the Spiral with my fire spells, but I have some other spells as well. What about you?"

Alura looked a little nervous about her past. She looked around to assure herself that no one was nearby. It made Ashlea chuckle. Back when they lived in Marelybone together, the two of them were always up to something secretive, whether they were sneaking into Aurora's secret candy stash, which she always kept hidden under her bed, or tailing Aurora's guardian and mentor, Sherlock Bones. "Promise you can keep a secret?"

Ashlea smirked and held out her hand for a pinky promise, just like from when they were kids. "I promise, Aurora… or should I now call you Alura?"

"I'll answer to either one." Aurora smirked as she held her friend's pinky with her own and they shook. She then pulled out something and slipped it to Ashlea to look at. "I'll be back in a few after I introduce myself to the teachers and get my first assignments."

"Right." It was a small journal that was labeled "Captain's log". Ashlea sat down on the stone steps outside of the school of Ice and read the journal while waiting for Aurora. Inside the journal was exactly what it said, a captain's log.


	2. Chapter 2

Captain's log: Day 1

A lot can happen from me getting invited to a party. I guess this is why I don't go to parties often. I went to a party last week and defended some ladies from an Armada robot that thought he was charming or something. I lost the fight. I am only an apprentice detective after all, or at least I was. Today I woke up in my cell on the Armada ship like I had been doing since that night. Only difference? I woke up to hear a fight. I decided to take advantage of it. Bones always taught me to take advantage of any situation I could. I started to try picking the lock with the hairpin that I had on me. It was my last one. I still can't believe all of what happened today.

Another blast right in front of my cell. Two… pirates I think… came in. Because I was still in my pirate costume from the party, smelly as I was by then, they believed me to be a pirate like them. They broke open the cell and asked what I was in for. One was an old guy with a white beard. I missed his name, same with his friend, who was a monkey. I think he said he was from Monquistidor originally. Anyway, I told them that I had been defending some ladies at a party. I didn't think I should lie to pirates. They said that I must be a swashbuckler because of how honest I am, as well as defensive apparently.

As we were leaving, I remembered the other guy that had been jailed in the ship's cells. I couldn't just leave him. Who knows what they'd do to him. He was a Horse Barbarian from Mooshu. I didn't have to convince the pirates to help me get him out of the jail cell. Turns out he's loyal to me now for rescuing him. Go fig. Ashlea would probably have a laugh. She always said I was a leader type. Hope she's okay in her part of the spiral… Oh right, back to… my new… issues.

Anyway, we made it up to the deck and the armada tried to capture us again. I didn't have magic like Ashlea, and I wasn't a boxer like Bones, nor did I have a gun. Thankfully, the fat white bearded guy had tossed me a sword. I was surprised that I caught it. I surprised myself even more when I found myself charging into battle to fight these things. The armada are a bunch of robotic clowns that look like they're from an opera house. Basically a bunch of revolutionary war robots that went on their own agenda. It's so annoying.

So, apparently I can fight with a sword. I will admit, I was shocked. The bearded pirate nearly got killed but managed to shoot some bombs over to the Armada. The monkey started defending him. Just as I was sure to lose my life, the Horse Barbarian, Sabudai, saved me. He pulled me away from the blast shot and made a killer rush attack on the robots. "No one hurts my friends!" I'm surprised he considers me a friend already, but eh, I don't mind. He's a nice guy.

We made it to the pirate's ship, but because the captain, the big guy with the beard, was injured, he told me to pirate the ship. I don't even have my driver's license! I'm… I think I'm fourteen! I didn't hesitate though once I heard that cannon boom. I ran up to the steering wheel and I don't know… I just felt a click. Like this was what I was supposed to do. I suddenly started barking out orders to the crew. I got the ship moving out faster than I thought possible. I really wish that Ash and Uncle Milo had been able to see me. I haven't seen either of them in a while. Ashlea started at the school for wizards but… what will she think of me now? I'm a pirate! Wizards aren't supposed to get along with pirates, right? That's what everyone always told me…

I steer us to a nearby island as I'm directed. Turned out to be called Pirate Island. My luck. I was raised by the dogs of Marelybone, so they think that I can shoot… that's only partially true. Sherlock Bones taught me how to shoot, but he made me promise not to unless it was a last resort. I wonder if he's worried about me… I sent him a letter once I found the mailbox around here. Told him I found a school that would take me in and that I'd be gone for a while. Hope he's okay.

Apparently there's a pirate school here. Because I'm apparently a swashbuckler, I was introduced to Morgan La'Fitte, the instructor of the Swashbuckler school. I was also introduced to Captain Avery. He's an annoying person to deal with, but apparently he's the headmaster of here.

Oh, and I have a crew now… well the start of one. So far it only has two people, Sabudai and a fox sharpshooter I picked up named Bonnie Anne. She helped me recover something for Avery. I got a ship out of the deal… sorta. The ship is actually a rust bucket that could use more than a little tune up. Heck, I'd go so far as to say that we need magic just to keep it running. Even the blind cat agrees with me. Old Mew hangs out around the docks and gives out hints to us new pirates… man I hope Bones doesn't find out… and that Ash doesn't hate me because of this… Bones would just ask me "What would my parents think?" I hate when he asks me that. I never knew them. I was taken to Bones when I was about a year old by Uncle Milo. I miss him. Hope he's okay. He's been gone since I turned five, but I still remember him fondly.

Anyway, I'm staying in the school's dorm at the moment. Sabudai and Bonnie Anne are staying at her place for the night. I'm to meet them tomorrow at Avery's court. They said they'd help me with my homework that I'll get, as well as quests. Cool, huh? G'night.


	3. Chapter 3

Ashlea closed the book as Aurora stepped out of the school of Ice. She knew that her first homework assignments would be on Unicorn Way, just like every beginner. Aurora looked at her with worry in her mismatched eyes, one blue, the other green. "You still up for talking to me?"

Ashlea smirked, knowing how hard it was for Aurora to make friends. Truthfully, she had been worried that she would be Aurora's only real friend, but if this book meant anything, then she had more friends than she thought. "Let's get going. I'll guide you around here for a while. I've got nothing to do until next week anyway. I finished my homework early." She was somewhat surprised that Aurora hugged her.

"Thank you."

"No prob. I only read day one, but man, sounds like you dealt with a lot of shit."

"Yeah, that's just day one, hehe. You oughta hear what happened later on. You can read some more of it while I check out with some of the guys on Unicorn Way… that is… if you're still up to hanging with me?"

"I just said I would, sheesh. Hard to believe that you've been a…"

"Don't say it, please! I keep getting told how we aren't supposed to be able to even work together, never mind be both!"

"Alright, alright." Ashlea laughed at her friend's concern. It was always amusing to see Aurora freak out about silly things and then act like big things were no big deal. "Come on, I'll take you through the city, give you a tour, and show you to Unicorn Way. Sound good?"

Aurora's smile returned. "Just call me Alura."

"Right. Let's see if you can get things to chill out on that street. The monsters are all low level, but man are they annoying."

"Right."

Ashlea led her through the town, just as she promised. They checked out a few shops nearby and even the fountain. Ashlea was happy to see Aurora laugh. She hadn't heard her laugh in ages. The last time she had seen Aurora, she had seemed… dark… as though the cold city of Marelybone was getting to her, what with her guardian always off on a case or something.

As they entered the street of Unicorn Way, after giving a note from the headmaster to the guard, Ashlea noticed Aurora's gaze harden as soon as she saw the monster covered streets. There were ghosts going around the front of the street, but farther back, Ashlea knew that there were dark fairies and skeleton pirates. Ashlea wondered how her old friend would deal with them if she had just come back from her own pirate life. Aurora took a deep breath and checked her spell deck for the fifth time that day. She didn't have many cards, but it would be enough for this low of a danger level group.

"Now, Aurora, I know that you're new to spell casting, but trust me it's…" Aurora had already rushed off though, much to Ashlea's amusement. Ashlea smirked. "Guess you already have an idea on what to do." She looked over to a nearby gazebo and decided to sit there and read while her best friend practiced her spells. She already seemed to have a knack for them. "Let's see what else you've done, Aurora."


	4. Chapter 4

Captain's log: Day 7

Managed to work out how to drive my ship, if you can even call it one. Off to Blood Shoals after a traitorous Pi-rat that is trying to find some treasure that Avery wants. My mentor pointed me in the right direction when she wanted me to meet Sarah Steele, a dear old friend of hers. Sarah joined my crew after we saved her from Ratbeard's goons. On our way to meet someone in Jonas Town, who might have some ideas on where to go. I also apparently got a pirate name. I'm now known as Stormy Aurora Dove. Frankly, it's just me adding Stormy to my name since Uncle Milo said that my name was Aurora Dove.

Day 12

Took us a while, but we finally made our way to Jonas Town… it's on the back of a whale… and if that's not bad enough, the town of Gullet, where the Frogfather lives is in its … well… its gullet. Yeah… not fun. I'm surprised Pinocchio isn't down there. Anyway, turns out, Frogfather knows who my mother was… and he has her ship… my mom was a pirate of some sort. He doesn't know who my father is though. Still… it's something. Oh, and now I have a mission from the Frogfather. He says he'll give me my mother's ship, repaired from a storm apparently, if I do a job for him. I gotta steal some spices from some monkeys near Pirate Island on some sort of outpost.

Yeah, I'm hoping Bones doesn't look in on my work. He sent me a response that says he's fine with that so long as I stay out of trouble. I'm working on writing this as we sail the spiral on a wreck that has no business flying. I'm going to say that "It's me, I'm not trouble" and hope he buys it. My mom was a pirate… who knew… maybe uncle Milo did… I wonder what Ash will think of all of this. TTYL.


	5. Chapter 5

Ashlea looked up from the book to check on Alura Dusksong, as her best friend was now going by. She smirked. Her own original name had been Ashlea Stone. Adding the fire part was just how she could show which school she specialized in. She smirked as Aurora put her pirate skills to good use by dodging some of the attacks from some pirate skeletons. There was a crowd starting to gather to watch her as she barely managed to jump out of the way. She closed the book and joined the crowd, wondering if Alura had slipped into this "Stormy" Aurora Dove she had just read about. She grinned as she saw Alura jump in the air and use an icy blast as though she had been practicing that simple spell all her life. Though the moves were pirate, the means of attack and defense were wizard.

She landed in a crouching position, holding her small icy wand like a staff or sword, keeping it far enough away that it was still a threat, but close enough that it was like an extension of her own arm. She stood up, her glasses glinting in the light of her wand and the midday sun. Her black hat had fallen off in the battle. She walked over and picked it up as the skeleton pirate crumbled to dust. "Well… that was easy." She gathered the dust for an assignment from one of the nearby people she was helping and smirked in Ashlea's direction. The brown skinned Pyromancer just chuckled as she nodded and followed her pale friend. "I think next was some skeleton in a tower?"

"Yeah, he keeps regenerating because we're just supposed to lock him in the tower. Great for a first… boss battle I guess? You know from those RPG games we used to play as kids?"

"Yeah, I remember those. I always wanted to be the healer and you always wanted to be the fighter. Looks like we're both magic users instead." Alura chuckled as they made their way down Unicorn Way. They stayed out of the majority of the battles by staying on the sidewalk.

"Yeah, but Life students can heal, so you could have gone in for that."

"I tried. My soul's magic is Ice though. Irony of Ironies, considering who my folks are."

"You mean you know who they are now?"

"No. I know who they were. How far d'ya get?"

"You met a mob boss?" Ashlea chuckled with a smirk.

Alura grimaced. "Yeah, and his nephew's one of my gang now if ya catch my driftwood." She chuckled at her weak attempt of a joke.

Ashlea rolled her eyes. "Should I continue?"

"Reading, yes. Putting up with my bad puns? I don't know, that one's up to how everything goes. This is it." Alura pointed to a tall tower that seemed to be glowing red. "I love how my jobs that have to do with buildings make the lights shine too much. Is it always like this?"

"Yep. Darn useful if we're stuck in a city. You see Bones recently?"

"No… you?"

"Nope. I sent him a letter though."

"Same. He respond?"

"Yeah. Said to keep a look out for you if I spotted ya."

"Ditto. Once I get the pass to go to Marelybone, I think I'll stop in for a visit. I actually miss him… and the old place."

"I bet you do. We'll go together. I can turn in my assignments anytime I wish once I have them. Some of them take as long as a year to finish."

"Let's hope I don't take that long to get to Marelybone. Wish me luck."

"You don't want me following you in?"

"Nope. My fight. Read some more. I found Uncle Milo by the way."

Ashlea's eyes widened in shock. "You're kidding!" Alura shook her head as she pushed open the door.

"I'll be back soon. Read what ya can if ya want." Alura smirked as Ashlea noticed her glasses change. They were now a set of ski goggles with silver snowflakes on the side.

"Right."


	6. Chapter 6

Day 20

Took us forever to sneak up to the post. I'm not good yet. I don't know why Bonnie Anne, Sarah Steele, and Sabudai, who is now my first mate, still hang out with me. Oh, right. Took a pit stop at Pirate Island, also known as Skull Island, and learned some new moves from not only my teach, but some of the others as well. I learned a particularly useful move from the Witchdoctor, Madame Zabina. She taught me that even pirates have wizardry in them. I learned a spell that would fit in with the school of death that Ashlea told me about. It allows me to summon some ghosts to defend my crew and attack a single enemy each time I use it. I personally don't find any joy in it, but I need to protect my crew. They've taken to listening to what I have to say as though I'm never wrong. It's weird. I don't really think anyone but Ashlea listened to me like this and even she knows when to argue with me. I don't tell them much about my life from before, but they don't seem to care anyway. Or at least they aren't concerned with it.

Oh, right, I was going to talk about getting the spices from those monkeys… yeah, we almost got caught there. Thankfully, Sarah, being a higher skilled swashbuckler than me, had an illusion spell on her. Apparently, pirates can do different types of magic based off their schools, just like wizards.

Anyway, we managed to sneak in to where the spices were stashed, but something else was kept there too, or should I say, someone! Chained up in an old cell was what looked like an old rat with thinning fur and torn clothes. Though it had been years since he'd obviously seen the light of day, I will admit that I was shocked to see him or that he recognized me after all these years.

"Well what do you know. A little light dove found her way to me. How ya doing, Aurora?" Light bird of peace is the translation of my name, Aurora Dove. I can't begin to describe the shock that went through me. I felt something snap in me, seeing one of the closest things I have to family chained up as a prisoner. I ran to the cell and started picking it with my dagger that I had recently gained, as though I knew how to pick a lock. I shouted an order to Bonnie Anne to keep lookout while Sabudai grabbed the spices. Sarah helped me to pick the lock and give Milo some yum-yum juice. Apparently, it's a cure all that was made by some guy named Captain Gun or something. We sent Milo out through the exit first so he could take a faster ship to Gullet and let the Frogfather know we had his spices. I will admit, I was shocked at Milo's response. It was "Ay aye, Cap'n!" He called me captain! As though he's one of my crew members. Mind you, I wouldn't mind having him around more, but I can't be his boss! I'm way younger than him! Isn't there some sort of rule about bossing family around?

Day 26

It took forever to catch up to that dumb whale again. Ugh. Anyway, helped some fishermen pelicans on our way in and then made our way back to the Frogfather. Uncle Milo was waiting with the Frogfather in his office along with a younger frog that I would know to be Tricky Vinnie, the sharpshooter frog of the Frogfather's mob, as well as the old frog's nephew.

I helped Sabudai and Sarah carry in the spices while Bonnie Anne looked menacingly at any nearby folks who looked like they were gonna give us a hard time. The Frogfather was so pleased that he said he'd like to do further business with me in the future. He also handed me a note to allow me to get ahold of my mother's ship, the Shining Viper. Turns out, he had another favor to ask of me. He asked me to take on his nephew, Vinnie, into my crew. Said that the experience would do him some good. I accepted him onto my crew along with Uncle Milo. I was actually grateful for the support. The Frogfather then took me aside and told me that I was just like my mother. I will admit, I think I was blushing when he said this. He said that I was as pretty as a pearl and smarter than most pirates. I had to tell him that I was raised in Marelybone by a genius, but I didn't tell him which one. He simply nodded and laughed. "That explains why you're so good at business." He said as he handed me a little more than what we bargained for. I was surprised and a little annoyed. I don't like getting what I didn't earn. He reassured me that it was repayment for us having to fight our way to meet him earlier. I guess that's okay.

I checked out the captain's cabin after I was sure the crew would be comfortable in their barracks under the deck. Sabudai took the wheel and started us back to Skull Island to restock before we start towards the Flotsam Skyways after Ratbeard. I had to clean it up but Milo was nice enough to help me, along with Sarah. Sarah kept muttering about how abnormal of a captain I was. I just shrugged it off though. I've always known I wasn't normal. While we were cleaning, I found an old picture that was obviously used like a dart board.

He was a dapper young man with… did I seriously just write dapper? I've been hanging out in Marleybone too long. Anyway, the guy was obviously a wizard, which confused me because at the same time the picture had been abused, it had obviously been taken care of as well. He had dark brown hair that was almost black and he wore red robes and had a tall staff with a ruby in it. His dark brown eyes had a childish look in them… sorta like an adult who never really grew up. . . Ashlea would be laughing at me for writing this. I sound like Bones really did train me to take his place instead of just survive the city. UGH! Anyway, I showed the picture to Milo since he had known my mother and had originally been on her crew, figured that out when the Frogfather told me to add him to my crew. Milo gave me an explanation after no one else was in the cabin with us.

He said that the wizard's name was David Rubywielder. He was some sort of Pyromancer that my mother had fallen for. Her name had been Ruthless Jennifer Dove, but when she wasn't stealing from other pirates, she was called Jennifer StormDove. Nice legacy, huh? My old man is apparently that wizard and my ma was a fierce pirate queen of sorts. My luck.

After a quick search around, Milo found a picture of my mother as well. She was a dark brown hair too and her eyes had a dangerous gleam in them instead of childish like my father's. From what Milo said, the two of them seemed to be complete opposites. Who knows what they saw in each other. I asked him why a wizard would even date a pirate… I had to ask what kind of pirate my mother was as well… apparently she was a witchdoctor pirate, which explains how Madame Zabina knows her. Magic sounds like the only thing these two had in common other than me… why am I blonde when they're brown haired and brown eyed? Maybe they were carriers for the genetic traits… CONGRATS, BONES! I STILL REMEMBER YOUR LESSONS ON GENETICS! I'M GONNA BE THE SMARTEST PIRATE EVER CAUSE I CAN'T FORGET WHAT YOU TAUGHT ME!

I hope he's okay too… I miss him. I miss Ashlea… why couldn't I be a wizard? Then I'd at least see them more often. I feel drained. I'm… I'm not supposed to exist. Pirates and wizards aren't supposed to mix… I'm dangerous. That's why I'm so good at that witchdoctor spell I learned. I have magic in my blood. Why couldn't I be a normal wizard? Or pirate? Why did my parents have to be both. I can't. It's no fair.


	7. Chapter 7

Ashlea looked up from her reading when Alura stepped out of the tower. She looked a little bruised, but other than that, she was fine. "I wonder what that bone bag would think if I introduced him to my crew's witchdoctor? He might think twice before trying to reform himself and cause trouble." She muttered as she locked the door of the tower behind her. "On the skyways, if I knock something down, he doesn't come back to bug me… okay, maybe their ghosts came back that once but still…" She continued muttering as she checked her satchel for all her gear. She had a dark black satchel with a large blue snowflake on it.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. He wasn't that hard. I just had some issues with his black fairy friends. I should report that those looked too light to have been born like that."

"Really?" Ashlea looked up in shock. She hadn't noticed that. She looked around at the surrounding black fairies and gasped as she realized her blonde friend was right. "Oh my gosh! We have to tell the headmaster!"

"Way ahead of ya, Ash." She looked at her map and took a deep breath. She needed to chart out the fastest route back to the commons.

"Forget that!" Ashlea grabbed Aurora and pulled out her wand. "Hang on. Teleport: Commons!" After a bright flash of fiery light, the two girls found themselves in the commons in front of the Headmaster's castle. They ran inside where other students were reporting in on their own assignments and work as well as getting registered. "Headmaster Ambrose!"

"Hmm? Oh, Ash Firestone, and… um… sorry, new students tend to slip my mind." Merle Ambrose was an old wizard with a long white beard, a set of spectacles resting on his nose and a blue outfit with silver stars on it. Rumor had it that he had mastered all branches of magic save for necromancy.

"It's fine. I'm Alura Dusksong. We have some urgent news for you." Alura explained what she had discovered about the fairies on Unicorn Way.

"Oh my… this is serious. Thank you for telling me, young wizard. We shall look into it. For now, you two should go and do your other tasks. Be sure to let me know if something else comes up."

As the two of them left the tower, Alura started kicking pebbles. "Frostbite."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Listen, he's not ignoring you or anything, he's just…"

"Busy? Yeah, I know. I've been meeting up with leaders from all over the spiral. I know how to tell if someone's hands are tied. He's trying to keep the students from panicking, but he'll go and send a message to the instructors with the theory that I stated."

"You understood all that?" Ashlea smirked. It had taken her a whole year to figure out what was up with her headmaster.

"How far'd ya get?"

"Your last name should be Rubywielder."

"Ah, yeah… my old man… keep hearing things about him… and mom…" Alura sighed and grabbed her task journal to look for her next job. "I gotta check out someplace called 'Triton Ave.' Know it?" She smirked at Ashlea.

"That's like asking Bones if he knows Marleybone like the back of his paw." Ashlea laughed. "Let's go."

The two wizards made their way past Old Towne and it's bazaar. Alura waved excitedly at someone on one of the ships that was docked for trading. Old Towne was one of the few areas where pirates and wizards wouldn't cause a ruckus being in the same area. Ashlea wondered who exactly she was waiving at until she noticed an old rat heading towards them. He smiled as he walked up to the young ladies. "Well I'll be… you actually found Milo."

"Didn't you read that part?"

"Yeah, but I thought…"

"Hehe, don't underestimate me on this stuff." She then looked at her godfather, as the rat really was, and smiled. "Hey, Uncle Milo. How's it going."

"Going well enough, Aurora. Hello, Ashlea. It's been a while."

"Yeah, it has… nice to see you again." Ashlea smiled as well.

"Where are you two off to this time? Off to cause more trouble I'd wager?" He put his paws on his hips and pretended to act like he was scolding two youngsters.

"Uncle Milo!" Aurora gave off a slightly whiny voice as she laughed. She knew he was just teasing them.

"Hehe, no worries, Aurora. So, where are ya heading?"

" _Alura_ here needs to go and get some stuff done on Triton Ave. What are you doing?"

"Oh, we're just going to sell some of our wares and then go and do some of our own missions while the Cap' n's working on her new skills." He winked while Aurora grimaced.

"You mean you're going to leave her here?"

"Only for about a month or two. We'll be back soon enough. If she needs us, or the other way around, we have our ways of communicating now." He then reached into his bag that he had tied to his belt. He pulled out two necklaces. "Hehe, I actually left to go and find these last time. Your mothers were best friends, though your mums kept eachother out of their usual activities." He winked once more as he gave Ashlea the necklace with a red stone in the center. "Your mum got this when she started going to school to be a wizard. I'm sure if you show it to her, she'll recognize it." He then handed Aurora the necklace with a blue gem. "Your mum got this just afore you were born, light dove. She said she had a feeling you'd be special. She's right." Aurora felt tears well up in her eyes as she put the necklace on.

"Thanks… Uncle Milo…"

Milo smiled kindly to the young duo, predicting in his mind a team of amazing potential like none had ever seen before. "No problem, dears. Now, I gotta get going. Sabudai 'll throw a fit if I'm not helping get the ship ready to go. You don't want to be on his bad side what with that new sword of his."

"Remember to do only tasks that you guys need to have done on your own. I don't want you guys doing anything else too dangerous without me. The map can wait for a few months… right?"

"Right."

After the rat pirate left towards the ship, Ashlea looked towards her solemn friend with a raised eyebrow. "Map?"

"I've been dealing with… treasure hunters… not fun. It's later on in the log. Shouldn't we get going?"

"Right. To Triton Ave."

It didn't take long after that to get to Triton Avenue, as it was just a little further away. Ashlea sat down on a bench as her friend started picking fights with the undead. The way she battled them made it seem like she understood them and what they were thinking.

Ashlea smirked and decided to keep reading. 'What else do you know… Stormy Aurora Dove.'


	8. Chapter 8

Day 40

Okay, so today was really weird. I ended up almost killed by zombies, ran around to different gravestones all because of Captain Gunn's treasure, and my crew nearly lost our life cuz of some shaman, and in the end… I did something crazy.

I invited Old Scratch, the skeleton Witch Doctor to join my crew. Or rather, I accepted his offer to join. I'm not sure what I'm thinking anymore…

Day 57

Okay, so allowing Old Scratch to join wasn't such a crazy move. Not only has he proven himself loyal, he's also proven himself useful. We found where the treasure was supposed to be, but someone beat us. So… Old Scratch called up the soul of Captain Gunn himself and he told us that Ratbeard had taken the treasure with the help of watermoles. UGH! Now we have to go a volcano island to fight for the gold, ugh.

Day 65

Another crazy decision brought up by Stormy Aurora Dove! I accepted Ratbeard onto my team. We had to rescue him from the watermoles. We climbed a stinking volcano, battled over four dozen of the darn creatures, fought their majorly overgrown champion and his voodoo totems that gave him bonus power, and cut down the overgrown rat from the rope he was tied to. Oh, did I mention that his crew is dead? We found them dead in the cave where they had their last meal. Turns out, he didn't know. He had meant to put them to sleep, yes, but only the kind that was long enough for him to cheat them out of their part of the treasure, not to kill them. I took him on my crew so that I'd be able to keep an eye on him as well as help him find out who the heck killed his crew. The irony is that he used to be the captain of his own ship, and now he's following my orders, and I'm still a newbie at this. I don't know what to think. I'm a pirate captain and people who have been doing this longer than me, but apparently I'm a good leader… yeah, I'm not buying that either. I have to set course for Skull Island again now. I need to return something to Avery that was in the pile of gold… some sort of cup or something.

Day 89

Well that's annoying. It took us longer than usual to get back to Skull Island. Reason? Avery thought we had died, so he sent out word that we knew about a map to El Dorado. I've heard of the place, but still! We managed to finish off the fight quickly and then headed back to Avery. We gave him the cup, he gave a fake apology for using us as an escape goat. I'm surprised that Ratbeard actually agreed with the others about it not being cool to use me as an escape goat. Apparently, the pirates weren't interested in my crew. Go fig. Anyway, now I have to go to Puerto Mico or something to meet some stupid monkeys and try to make a peace treaty between them and Skull Island.


	9. Chapter 9

Ashlea looked up in amusement as Aurora sat herself down beside her. "Having a good time, Alura?"

Alura smirked. "Yeah. By the way, apparently these guys drop items as well?"

"Yeah, what'd ya get?"

"Some new robes and a hood… and some other things too."

"Want to try it out?"

"Yeah. Where can I change?"

"Just tap it with your wand and it'll change your clothes."

"I end up in my underwear because of you, I'm zapping you next."

"Hehe, you worry too much. Just try it."

Alura rolled her eyes and tapped the outfit pieces that she wanted. She was surprised when they just appeared on her and the other pieces appeared in her bag. "Okay, I'm impressed. Wizard magic is cool." She was now wearing a white set of wizard robes with a white hood and a white cape with light blue trimming and some bright white boots, all with light blue trimming.

"You doubted?"

"With you doing it? No. Me? Yes." She chuckled. "You know I was only good at getting us in trouble."

"That's not true at all, now what's next?" Ashlea grimaced as she realized her friend had some issues in self doubt.

"I got told to check up on the Gryphonbane siblings. Something's up apparently."

"They're just down the road. Let's go. Susie is usually just down this way. She likes studying the ghouls near the falls and look in on the Kraken battles."

As they walked down the street, Alura would sometimes deviate from the safe path to help another newbie wizard, increasing her own control of her powers as well. Ashlea smirked. She didn't mind. As she kept taking the chances to read what her friend had done. She followed her friend's adventures through the Flotsam Skyways and to the lands of the Monquisition. She read how her friend saved many people of many races even though she was a pirate. One of the most amusing times was when the Monquisition tried to double cross her. She had not taken kindly to that. She also explained how she had two members on her team that were Monquistan but had decided that she was in the right.

As Ashlea read on, she started realizing that her best friend had taken on the motherly role of protector though she had never experienced that herself before. Aurora was still as much a mystery as she had been five years ago when they had last met. She had a feeling that her old friend was still hiding mysteries under her cloak.

"Oh no." Aurora muttered as they approached a young girl who was crying. She had brown hair in pigtails and a purple outfit. "What's wrong?" Aurora asked in her kindest voice. She sounded almost like a mother trying to soothe a child.

"My brother went to check out the Haunted Cave, but he never came back. I asked another wizard to help me, but they only came back with his broken wand and… and…"

"And the wizard ran off screaming for the hills?" Ashlea supplied, knowing what Aurora was thinking. "Don't worry Susie, Alura and I will find him."

"You will?"

Alura grinned like a Cheshire cat. "We'll have him back by supper. Let's go, Ash." Alura ran off towards the teleport stones that would bring her farther along the avenue.

"Wait up, Alura!" Ashlea shouted as she chased her friend. 'This must be what Watson feels like when Bones is on a case… Aurora picked up way too much from him.'

"Come on, Ash, the game's afoot!"

'yeah, way too much…'


	10. Chapter 10

Just as the girls were about to reach the teleporter, a death student stopped them from going farther towards the cave. "Whoa there. Where do you two think you're going?"

"Out of our way, Duncan. Susie's brother's missing and we have to find him."

Duncan was a brown skinned boy wearing dark black and white robes and carried a staff. He looked way over confident in his abilities. "Help me and I might be able to help you."

"Did you have a hand in the boy's disappearance?" Alura glared, seeming to freeze the boy's very soul.

"N… no… who is this, Ash Firestone?"

"This is my friend, Alura Dusksong. She's a new thaumaturge, and not one you want to mess with."

"Funny, I was going to say that about you, Ash." Alura smirked. They always played each other up to make themselves sound more dangerous. "Let's go."

"Hey, wait!" The two girls looked back with peeved looks. "Alright, fine, I'll tell you though, you need my help to defeat the Harvest Lord."

"The what?" Alura looked unimpressed.

Ash rolled her eyes. "The Harvest Lord is an overgrown scarecrow that needs to be put in his place. Think you can handle making your way there while I help him real quick? I promise, I'll be there to help, just don't go in without me."

Alura thought about it and then nodded. "Right. Meet you at the tower. I'll pick a few fights along the way for the practice."

"Just don't do anything reckless. I don't want to explain to Bones why his ward got buried by a zombie grave digger."

Alura laughed as she ran off down the street. "See ya at the tower, Ash."


	11. Chapter 11

Alura ran past the bridge and towards the back of the streets. She made her way past scarlet screamers as well as other ghouls and monsters. After a few minutes, she found a large foreboding cave near the back of the streets. The gate to it seemed to have been torn off or something. Alura glared and instinctively reached towards her dagger, forgetting that she had no sword at the moment. When she felt the hilt of the dagger, she moved the hand to her mother's necklace. She touched the small sapphire in it and then started off through the cave. She took deep breaths as the darkness came closing in on her. 'Wish I had a lantern on me… maybe Ash will find me…'

As she continued walking, she noticed flashes of lights from other spell casters. Alura's eyes sparked as an idea came to her. She pulled out her wand and activated a small light spell that she had picked up from the fire professor, Falmea.

"I was wondering when you'd activate that spell." Alura jumped at the sudden appearance of the voice and turned, ready to cast the first spell that came to mind, which at that moment was to summon an ice snake. "Easy, Aurora, it's just me."

Alura dimmed the light a little and let out a small "OH!" in shock. Ashlea was standing there behind her and her fiery colored robes were glowing. "Oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh! I am so sorry, Ash!"

"Easy, easy, it's fine. Let's go. Artur won't wait forever." The young Pyromancer led the way down the path that had been laid in the dark haunted cave. "This place used to be a part of Wizard City too, ya know."

"Actually, I didn't. What happened?"

"The Harvest Lord and the undead. They took over. It was before I got here. Mom said that it had been this way for a while."

"How is your mom?"

"She's fine. She thinks that I should add some variety to my life though. Don't know what she means though."

"Tell ya what. When my crew comes back, I'll let ya come along on one of our adventures. Might as well, right? I mean, that's variety."

"Ha! If that works out then maybe we both can be pirate wizards."

"Eh, we've done weirder, haven't we?"

"No… but we've seen weirder."

"That's the spirit, Ash." After a few more minutes, Alura and Ashlea made it to the edge of the cave that had some natural light in it from the outside, like a cavern entrance or something. "Okay, tall tower on a patch of land that looks like it's gonna fall into the dark water, so… I'm impressed."

"You impress way too easily."

"Do not. Try traveling to Sivella, the land of the unicorns? The library there is amazing… when the armada isn't destroying it…"

"You want to go back?"

"Ha, not really, I want to go and stop Kane and the armada, but that's it."

"Kane?"

"I'll explain later." The two of them nodded and started towards the door. "Let's kick some Harvest Lord… yeah, that's too weird of a name. What is he, anyway?"

"An overgrown scarecrow. No worries."

"Right. You burn, I'll keep our defenses up."


	12. Chapter 12

"I DON'T FUCKING BELIEVE IT!" Ashlea yelled as the two of them finished searching the tower. It was empty. The Harvest Lord was nowhere in sight and Alura cringed at the loud shout of her friend.

"Take it easy, Ash. Let me check the map. I think someone told me that it'll update where everyone is when I ask where they are."

Ashlea took a deep breath and sighed. "Sorry, it's just, he's not supposed to leave the haunted cave, and kidnapping a wizard, even just a kid, is against the treaty. Wizard City has a treaty with that creep and he's not… ugh."

"It's fine. According to this, he's actually just outside of the cave in another tower on Triton Avenue."

"WHAT!"

"Ash, please, calm down. Look, let's go, alright? I'm sure that we'll still be fine."

The two girls make their way out of the cave and towards a tower with a red glow. "How did we miss this?" Ashlea grumbled.

"It is just across the way from the cave… I'm not sure. Eh, let's go in." Alura knocked on the door with her wand. "Whoops." It turned to ice and cracked. "Guess we can go in." She smirked.

"Right." They walked in and immediately, Alura felt sick. She clutched her stomach and grimaced as she glared towards the stairs. "You okay?"

"This guy's necromancy is stronger than Old Scratch, and that guy is an undead skeleton, Ash. Do you think we can handle this?"

Ashlea looked at her like she was insane. "This coming from you?" Ashlea shook her head and smirked. "We'll be fine. He's usually a weakling anyway. Let's go."

"Right…"

They reached the tower and the two leaned against the door as the giant scarecrow made a stupid speech about taking over Wizard City with the help of Malistare. Alura glanced at Ashlea for an explanation while the creep kept talking.

"He was the professor of the Death School until his wife, Sylvia, the old Life teacher, died of a flu or something. He hasn't been the same since. Rumor has it, he's after something. Not sure what." Ash whispered to her icy friend. Alura nodded slowly as the scarecrow rapped up his speech.

Alura looked up to the Harvest Lord and faked a yawn. "Can we get this started? I've got some spells to learn if I want to catch up to my friend here, and I'm already going to be late for Tea back in Marelybone."

"You don't drink tea, Alura." Ashlea chuckled as the two of them got into a battle position. Artur was sitting in a cage in the back of the room. "So, what do you think?"

"I think we need to heat things up a bit." She pulled out a card that had come with her wand. It was a spell card. "FIRE CAT!" She waved her wand like the instructions on the card and suddenly heard a fizzle. "Oh Frostbite."

"Don't worry, I've got it." Ashlea summoned a fire elf that shot an arrow at the straw figure. The Harvest lord flinched as he felt the arrow's burn.

"Foolish wizards, your weak spells won't stop me!"

"He's a diviner! He's weak to myth magic!" Artur shouted over the rumble of the magic that was happening in the room. The Harvest Lord summoned a storm snake.

Alura and Ashlea did a quick tuck and roll out of the way. "I only got one myth spell! Ash?"

"I've got two!"

"Let's see what we got!"

"RIGHT!" The two of them summoned a pair of bloodbats each.

The bats did have a boost against the large scarecrow, but they were still weak leveled spells. Alura growled as she was hit by a dark fairy spell. She used her wand like a bat and hit the fairy right back at the Harvest Lord.

"Ash, your other spell!"

"Right! Summon Troll!" Suddenly, a large troll appeared with club. He scratched his head. Ashlea frowned and pointed towards the scarecrow. "Have fun." The troll grinned and ran to the scarecrow. He raised his club and brought it down with a mighty heave, attempting to smash the scarecrow. He only succeeded in a glancing blow. The spell troll was shattered in a few minutes though.

In that amount of time, Alura had managed to summon up some shields and defenses for the two of them. She had also managed to summon two ice snakes.

"He can't have much more. Alura, what else ya got?" Ashlea asked as the two of them were backed into a corner.

"Just a treasure card or two and some other low level spells. You?"

"Nothing that I've been able to perfect yet. Oh, wait! I do have something! Shield your eyes!" Ashlea raised her wand as it expanded into a staff of dragons. "Here's the birdie!" A firebird rose up from the sparks of her staff and glared at the harvest lord. Alura and Artur both shielded their eyes as the bird burst into flames and dived at the Harvest Lord.

The Harvest Lord screamed as the intensity from the firebird turned it to ashes and cinders. Ashlea was panting heavily by the end of the spell. Alura opened her eyes and grabbed her friend as she fell. "Ashlea!"

"I'm fine… I have to use my energy to charge up some of those spells. It's what makes being a wizard dangerous… haven't you noticed being tired?"

"Not really. I think it has something to do with how I spent the last four years. You have to remember, I do a few spells as well."

"Right… I'll be fine though, get Artur out of that cell… if you can…" Aurora helped her friend to sit down on a chair and then walked over to the cage.

"It'll be a snap. I've been dealing with locks like this since I ran into Uncle Milo. This is no probs." She took out her icy dagger that she had found on her pirate journeys and started to use it to pick the lock. "Just give me a few minutes." She started turning the dagger like an expert, confusing the young wizard in the cage.

"Why not just blast it with a spell?"

"Because, kid, I don't know what kind of magic is on this thing, but I do know that in a city full of wizards, no one will suspect the old lock pick with a dagger trick. You pick up quite a few things out in the spiral." She smirked as the lock snapped open from her careful touch. "Done." She opened the cage and the younger boy walked out.

"Thanks. Where'd ya learn a trick like that?"

"Hehe, let me keep a few secrets, kid. You Artur Gryphonbane?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"You sister's worried about you."

"OMG!" He ran off down the stairs after grabbing a wand from a collection of wands that were hanging in the room. Apparently, they were trophies of some sort. Alura rolled his eyes as the boy ran off.

Alura walked back over to Ashlea and checked her over. The two of them had a few scrapes from the fight, but for the most part, they seemed fine. "You okay now?"

"Yeah, you?" Ashlea stood up with a smile.

"Hehe, yeah. Just like old times."

"Yeah, only we were fighting cats with your wooden sword and my slingshot."

"True, but eh, at least we made sure that our houses were safe when the adults were busy."

"Yeah, those were the days."

"You remember how we met?"

"How could I forget?"

Ashlea just kept smiling as they left the tower and made their way to the Commons. She found it ironic that she was fire and her best friend was ice, but at the same time, it was fitting. Aurora was always defensive of her as a child and Ashlea was always ready to take the fight to the next step if someone was picking on Aurora. It was amazing to think of how far they had come since the day they had met.

 ** _It was a dark evening in Marelybone and the fog was rolling in. Ashlea was on her way home with her mother, Melody Stone. They had been shopping in the market place. Ashlea suddenly sensed something and clung to her mother tighter. Melody had also sensed something. She raised up a shield as fast as she could, barely managing to block an attack from some cat thugs. "Stay behind me, Ashlea."_**

 ** _Melody cast a few defensive wards and then start shooting different beams at the thugs. Suddenly there was the sound of a gunshot. Melody kept her concentration on the thugs and her daughter, but Ashlea's eyes widened as two dogs and a little human kid wearing a black outfit that was similar to the tall dog's outfit came towards them. The tall dog and the human were wearing trench coats and deerstalkers. There was also a shorter dog that was taller than the child. He was dressed like a doctor._**

 ** _"Good evening, Ms. Stone." The tall canine said. Marelybone was home to many canines._**

 ** _"Good evening, Mr. Bones, Doctor Watson. Who's this?"_**

 ** _"My ward, Ms. Dove, and this is?"_**

 ** _It amazed Ashlea that these adults were having a casual conversation in the middle of a battle. "My daughter, Ashlea Stone. She's only three, but she's already showing signs of how smart she is."_**

 ** _"As is Ms. Dove, unfortunately. It proves to be quite troublesome at times. Ms. Dove, if you'd be so kind as to guard Ms. Stone, we'll dispatch these ruffians." The child nodded and ran to Ashlea._**

 ** _"Um… hi…" Ashlea squeaked in a scared voice. The other girl grimaced and reached a hand into her pocket. "Who are you?"_**

 ** _"Name's Aurora, Aurora Dove." She had on a Marelybone accent like Mr. Bones, only it was definitely more feminine, and younger. "Here." She handed Ashlea a slingshot and a bag of stones as she drew a wooden sword from her coat. "I'll defend you, but you gotta shoot the big mean cats away from everyone, deal?"_**

 ** _Ashlea looked at the slingshot she had just been handed and then at Aurora. Something about the young blonde made her feel confident. She smirked as she loaded up the slingshot. "Let's play."_**

Ashlea smirked as she remembered the evening fondly. Since that night, the two of them had done almost everything together. All up until Ashlea had discovered her wizarding powers.

 ** _It had been on one of their nightly runs. They were about thirteen years old, the year before Aurora went missing in fact. Aurora was with her wooden sword, as usual, and Ashlea had her slingshot. They were checking out a rumor about kids going missing and only ransom notes to a mysterious "Kit-Napper" were found. Aurora and Ashlea had friends who lived on the streets and went missing. Bones was busy and Melody wasn't hearing a thing of it, neither were the police though. The girls had decided to take it into their own hands._**

 ** _They had found the cat committing the crimes with his hostages all trapped in cages. Aurora and Ashlea worked together to get the kids out and had almost escaped unnoticed, had it not been for one of the kids sneezing. Aurora made the Baker St. Irregulars that usually reported to her and Ashlea, lead the kids out of there while they held off the mad cat. Ashlea kept letting pebbles fly and was soon finding herself letting out fireballs in her anger. When the first fireball came towards Aurora and the cat, Aurora felt a shiver down her spine and dodged. The cat was not so lucky. "Keep it up, Ash. You've got him by the fur!" Aurora ran to Ashlea's side to defend her from close combat, but it never came. The cat passed out, as did Ashlea. Aurora grabbed Ashlea and started to drag her out of the place. The irregulars had already gotten ahold of Bones and he had gotten, much to Aurora's annoyance, Melody Stone. Aurora explained everything as best as she could when the police arrested the cat for kidnapping multiple children. Ashlea woke up shortly later, exclaiming that she felt dizzy._**

That had been the start of Ashlea's schooling to become a Pyromancer, and Aurora's life as a lonely orphan again. True, she still lived with Bones, but Ashlea saw her one more time before she disappeared and was shocked at the changes that had gone through her usually optimistic friend. Aurora had a hardened gaze, save for when talking to Ashlea, and her sword had obviously been used more for some reason. Aurora wouldn't say why though.


	13. Chapter 13

The two made it back to the Headmaster's castle and informed him of what they had learned. As Alura suspected, he said that he'd look into it, and for the girls not to worry about it. "Figures."

"Give him a break, Alura, he's busy."

"I know, that's why I'm not yelling at him." She sighed. "I'm going to think of something." She felt her spine shiver again and instinctively pulled her friend down as a spell shot over head.

"How do you do that?"

"Eh, I picked up some instinct." Alura then checked her maps and quests list. "Looks like trouble on Firecat Alley, Cyclops Lane, and something's going down in the Dark Cave that connects them. You in?"

"Ha! Is Bones obsessed with putting Meowiarty in jail?"

"Then what are we waiting for?"

"You to decide where first." Ashlea smirked.

Alura blushed. "Right… how's Firecat Alley tickle your fancy?"

Ashlea blinked and face palmed herself. "Tickle your fancy? That's it!" She grabbed Alura by the scruff of her robe's collar. "We're going to Firecat Alley and getting you to talk to normal people. How many of your crew did you tick off with this type of language?"

"Not sure. Maybe all, maybe none. They never really questioned it because old Marelybone barely slips out anymore." Alura managed as she was dragged unceremoniously through the town.

"UGH! We'll get you fixed soon enough, Alura. For now, we've got things to do."

"Right… can I get up and walk on my own now?"


	14. Chapter 14

Ashlea sat down on a nearby bench as Alura went to gather some materials for a pocket harpsicord, whatever that was. Apparently, a relic hunter wanted it. Alura did him the favor of getting the pieces because she had an excuse to battle the fire elves and the magma men that were running around. They were on Firecat Alley. Ashlea just took the battles as an excuse to read more. The more she read, the more amazed she was. Aurora had always had a knack for describing things, and the way she described each world was amazing. The latest entry was for Valencia, the land of the unicorns and of arts. Aurora sat down next to her friend, exhausted.

"You okay?"

"I've been working at this for days now." Ashlea blinked. Sometimes she forgot that time was even a factor, since magic kept the world of Wizard City in the middle of the day for the most part. She looked at Aurora's time watch that each student was supplied with. It read that she had been there for a total of ten days already.

"Ah, jeez… sorry, Alura. Guess I forgot that you'd be stubborn to help people despite your exhaustion. You should have said something when your watch said it was past day one."

"Nah, that was when I was busy with that Rattlebones guy."

"Day three?"

"Lady Black Hope."

Ashlea frowned. "Day five?"

"I was busy with all those undead on Triton Ave."

"Day eight?"

"We had to deal with the Harvest Lord and then made our way to Cyclops Lane, but we just walked During the ending of Day eight, we made our way through the dark cave and over to here to help with the fire elves. Day Nine was yesterday and that was when I was busy with those banshees and fighting that fire elf prince to break the curse on him and his people." Alura gave a weak smirk. She then brought out a small flask that was supposedly filled with a health potion or water. She took a small sip, made a face at how bitter it was, and then looked rejuvenated. "That's better."

"What was that?"

"Yum."

"Yum?"

"Made from the Yum fruit of Mooshu. Great for a pick me up, but tastes like soda…"

"Right… and you still have issues with Soda?"

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND IT! I mean, seriously! Why can't I just be normal and like stuff like that? IT makes NO sense!" Aurora waived her hands about like a nutcase without hitting anyone. "WHY CAN'T I BE NORMAL?"

Ashlea grimaced and rubbed Aurora's head, ruffling her hair, as though she was a dog. Aurora seemed to calm down a bit. "It doesn't matter. Let's go check the mail after we're done here. We can stay at my dorm and rest for a bit too, if you want. What's the longest you've stayed up?"

"This was it. I reached my limits and I've been sipping at my Yum since day three. I usually can get some sleep on my ship. My newest one is called the Rosa Angela. Nice big old ship with plenty of space."

"Cool… what happened to the Shining Viper?" The two girls stood up and started back towards Olde Town.

"Oh I still have it, it's just bottled up."

"… bottled up…?"

"We gots magic." Alura said in a crazy whisper like voice. Ashlea couldn't help but laugh as Aurora smiled.

"Okay, stupid question, got it. Hehe."

"Yep. So… after my crew comes back, you up for an adventure while these guys take care of Wizard City for a bit? Surely, you can ask to spend a month of the Skyways with me travelling around? I mean, you do traveling right? And you've done a lot around here…" Aurora tried to put in an argument to have her friend see life from her perspective. She knew it was a stretch, but she still wanted to at least try.

Ashlea just laughed again as they entered the Olde Town district and led Aurora to the Post Office. "No problem. I've got some time , I'm sure."

"Great! Oh, I can't wait! We could go meet my teacher, oh, or go challenge some armada robots to a fight! Or…"

"Or we could look for the pieces of this map you need while doing all of that."

"Really? You don't mind?"

"I'll try and keep up." The two turned in their keys and received their mail.

"Looks like Bones found out I was in the area… and a letter from Uncle Milo and the gang. You?"

"Bones and mom."

The two used Ashlea's teleportation spell to appear in her dorm. It was small and had a large bed with some decorations. "Nice room."

"Thanks, Aurora. So, shall we see what they've got to say?"

"Yep. Bones first." Aurora and Ashlea opened their envelopes at the same time and looked over the letters from the detective. "What's he got for you?"

"Keep an eye on you and stay safe. You?"

"Ditto. Along with a 'be careful' about controlling my powers, because Ice is apparently dangerous just because it comes from the giants. Ha, like your dragon fire isn't just as dangerous."

"Figures."

"Yeah."

Ashlea then opened her letter from her mother. "Mom says that if I see you, I should say hi for her. She also says that I'm supposed to work on balancing my powers with you. Think we can do it?"

Aurora looked over to Ashlea and lowered her glasses slightly. "It's us. We may not be Balance students, but we are good at making up for what the other lacks."

"True." Ashlea smirked. "What's up with your crew?"

"Milo says that Sabudai will be bringing the ship around within the next few months. They're finishing pretty quickly."

"I'll join when you ship out."

"Really?"

Ashlea smiled. "You're teaching me to hold a sword."

"… and shoot a musket properly." Aurora grinned. "So, what should we do in the meantime?"

"Try and do some more of those quests you got. I'll do what I can to figure out what's going on here." Aurora then yawned and Ashlea's smile softened. "But first, let's get some sleep."

"Right…"


	15. Chapter 15

When the two woke up, Alura checked her list of tasks that she needed to do. "I've gotta go check out some stuff on Cyclops Lane and then get some supplies for a new spell on Triton Ave. and Colossus Blvd."

"Think you can handle it? I've got something to do this morning."

"No prob. I'll probably be spending a day at Cyclops anyway."

"Right. I'll catch up with you there then."

"Sounds good."

Aurora made her way through Wizard City and Olde town and looked at where it split into three streets. She was supposed to meet a Nolan something on Cyclops Lane to help out. She shrugged and made her way towards the street on the right. Sticking to the sidewalks, Alura Dusksong was not caught up in the fights with the trolls and cyclops that ran amuck in the street. She'd deal with them later if she had to.

Nolan wasn't a very impressive Myth Wizard. He was just sitting on one of the stands at the fair and reading his book on mythology from his professor, Cyrus Drake. Alura rolled her eyes. "HEY!"

The boy nearly dropped his book as he was startled out of his thoughts. "Who are you?"

"Alura Dusksong, the wizard who's been sent to help out around here. You Nolan?"

"That's right. Look, stop buggin me and go get some of those medallions that the trolls have. I sent some other wizards to do it, but they didn't come back. They're probably all gabbing somewhere rather than working." Alura frowned.

"Whatever. I'll be back to have a few words with you, kid."

"I'm not a kid!"

"Well you aren't acting like an adult or a teen. You're acting like a lazy kid… actually I know kids who were better than you…" She muttered as she went off to fight some of the trolls.

After fighting six trolls, Alura found that one of them had dropped something. She picked it up and frowned. "Who forgets to dot their I's?" Her eyes widened as she read the message. It was a note to hold some wizard students and it was from someone going by the pen name of "M". "Of Frostbite! I gotta tell Nolan!" Alura ran as fast as she could to the fairgrounds in the middle of the lane where Nolan was still reading his book. "HEY, NOLAN! We got a problem!" This time Nolan fell off of the stand he was sitting on, and landed on the ground.

"OW. WHAT? What could be so important that you need to bother me?"

Alura handed him the paper. "How about kidnapped students?"

Nolan read over the note with some concern, which grew the more he read. "You're right, this is serious. The cyclops have kidnapped the students! We should report this to Professor Drake, he'll know what to do."

Alura frowned once more and slapped her hand to her face, barely avoiding her glasses. "Do you always rely on him? Does he do anything?"

"Well…"

"Thought not, look, I'm going to fight some Cyclops to take their hammers from them anyway, for one of the guards. You can send the next wizard over to the professor, unless you want to do it yourself, and see what he says. If I'm not back by the time that's done, then something's wrong." Alura ran off down the street towards where she had been told that a general or something named Eye-Maximus lived.

Alura battled her way through with what felt like ease. Alura frowned as she looked at the stairs ahead of her. "Ash…" She called into her watch. It not only how much damage she had taken and the time and day it was, but it also worked as a communicator to friends.

"I'm here, what's up?"

"Something's wrong here. I just made my way up to a tower where Maximus lives. It's too easy. I'm sensing a trap. I already gave Nolan directions and the letter that I had found among the trolls. I'm going in."

"Aurora be careful!" Alura nodded hit the off button on her communicator. She knew what Ashlea had wanted to say. She had wanted to say that it was too dangerous. Aurora didn't mind though. She knew Ashlea meant well, just like she did when she was over protective. She had called Ashlea to let her know that she might need rescuing. She knew a trap when she sensed it.

As she entered the top of the tower with the cyclops and his Warhammer minotaur creature, she knew she was right. Especially while in mid battle, Alura was knocked out from behind by some sort of object hitting her head. Alura Dusksong had been captured!


	16. Chapter 16

When Alura woke up, she found herself in a cell with none of her gear, save for her clothes. "Frostbite." She muttered. She squinted up at the locks that had her wrists chained up to the wall. They had taken her glasses as well. She started trying to move her hands to see if she could reach the sleeves of her robes. Much to her surprise, she could, but barely. She started pulling at something that looked like a simple design. It wasn't. It was a bobby-pin that she had attached to her cloak. She ignored the throbbing in her head as she worked.

It took a few minutes, but she had managed to grab it. She then bent her wrist down low enough to start picking the lock. This took another few minutes that Alura wasn't counting, mainly because this wasn't a time for Alura, but a time for Aurora Dove, the storm born swashbuckler pirate. As she fell to the ground, she felt her powers erupt around her, allowing her pirate outfit to show, but she still had no weapons. She smirked. In a city of wizards and magic, not having a weapon usually meant just not having a wand or spell deck. She walked over to a table that had her gear on it. The moment that she touched her satchel, she transformed back into Alura Dusksong. She sighed in relief. She couldn't risk her pirate half showing to the wizards.

She checked her glasses and was relieved to find that they didn't have a crack in the lenses. She placed them on her face and looked around to see if she could find out where she was. She looked through some metal bars after checking that all her gear was still in place and smiled at what she saw. Outside of the cell, a young Pyromancer was fighting, no longer holding back, and nearly frying the cyclops general that was holding her and some other students hostage. Alura could see the other students being held hostage in a cell across the grand hall. She frowned though at the fact that she had been the only one who had been chained up, and that she was alone in her cell.

Someone had known something about her, but what? She looked around and noticed that there was a set of magic wards placed, but they seemed to be for going against a Pyromancer, which was the opposite of her. She took a deep breath and held her wand up high, channeling all the magic wards to her advantage, as they were filled with Ice magic. The more magic she pulled out, the more the wards seemed to be angry. Her eyes widened as she heard a voice. It was deep, dark, and sinister. It was similar to Professor Cyrus Drake's voice, but at the same time, it was different.

"Had I known that you didn't inherit your father's fiery powers, I would have planned accordingly. Next time I won't make that mistake. You mother sought to protect you by having your name be the same as hers. How foolish…"

"Who are you?" She whispered as she started glaring around the room, trying to find the source of the voice. "What do you want with me?"

"Simply to stop you from ruining my plans."

"Which I know nothing of…"

"Maybe not, but I have been warned of you. Not all magic has a class at Ravenwood, as you well know, _Pirate!_ " Alura flinched. Someone knew what she was. "I knew both your parents. Your mother was one of my students, though she was a pirate. She was quite a skilled Witchdoctor, and Necromancer." The voice continued saying things about her and her parents that she knew were true. She kept looking around, as though she really would find the owner of the voice, even though she knew that she wouldn't.

"Only a coward would taunt a foe from the shadows with something that they know nothing of." Alura hissed as she felt her pirate-self trying to fight for dominance. She blinked in shock. She hadn't realized that there were two different beings in her because they had always agreed, but now it seemed, they wanted to do two different things. Her pirate half wanted to break out, help Ashlea in her fight, and then figure out what the heck was tormenting her. Her wizard half though, wanted to stop this thing now and wait for Ashlea to get her out of her cell so that she didn't cause trouble with the other wizards by revealing who she was. "Come out and fight."

"You know nothing, child, because they tell you nothing. Your parents were easily capable of teleporting out of any dangerous situation. How could a pathetic little storm kill them?"

Alura glared. Whoever this guy was, he knew who she was. "You still haven't said who you are."

"So you didn't do your homework?" The voice chuckled ominously.

"No, I've done all my homework that's been asked of me… I just don't know a lone voice that floats with no purpose or meaning."

"Why you little!" The voice silenced the moment that Alura turned towards the door where Ashlea was standing. She was unlocking the cell with the key that she had taken from the cyclops general.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, you rescue the others?"

"They're already on their way back to the commons to recover… who was yelling at you?"

"Oh good, then I'm not losing it…"

"Not yet at least."

"Right." Alura smirked as she hugged her best friend in gratitude. "Thanks for the rescue."

"You've done the same." Ashlea grinned as she returned the hug. "I'm just trying to even the score."

"Thanks." The two started to make their way back to the commons themselves. "Oh, and by the way, I have a guess as to who was yelling at me…"

"Who?"

"I think it was Malistare… he talked about having a necromancer student, so I'd think that it was him." Ashlea frowned and placed a hand on Alura's forehead. "What?"

"I think you need more time to rest. Malistare shouldn't have any interest in you. Heck, he shouldn't even know you exist yet… unless while you were out you forgot to write something down…"

"No… what's there is there…" Alura shrugged weakly. She felt drained of all energy. She looked at her flask of Yum and grumbled. "I'm out of Yum."

"So what?" Alura looked at Ash and grimaced as she felt the weight of her body crumble in on itself as she fell forward. "ALURA!" She reached out and caught her friend as unconsciousness fell upon the young pirate wizard. Ashlea gasped as she noticed her best friend was bruised and scarred from her last few fights. Her wizard robes had been hiding her scars and bruises from every one, but now the damage had caught up to her. She had either used up her Yum juice, or someone had taken the rest of it. Either way, Alura needed to recover, and Ashlea needed to get her to somewhere safe. "Hang in there, Aurora. I've got you." She grunted as she held the young wizard over her shoulder. "HOME!" The two were gone in a burst of flames.


	17. Chapter 17

Alura woke up in the hammock she had made herself the other day. She lifted her head and looked around in shock. She was back in Ashlea's room! "You okay now, Aurora?" Alura turned towards Ashlea and sighed in relief. Her best friend was okay.

"I'm fine, thanks. You okay?"

"You gave me a bit of a scare, that's all."

"Sorry, forgot to cast a healing spell, what with some madman yelling nonsense at me from nowhere." Alura grimaced and did her derpy face where she stuck out her tongue and made one eye go up while the other went down.

Ashlea couldn't help but giggle. "I went to the post office and got a package from Milo for us. Imagine my surprise when it's a whole case of Yum, twelve bottles full of it! And then, to top it off, a letter for me, letting me know that you might need this." She handed Alura a box with holes in it. The box started squawking once it was in Alura's hands.

"I don't believe it!" Alura opened the box as fast as she could to reveal a ruffled up Ostrich with a wooden peg leg. "GRITTY JESSIE?"

"What the Fuck?"

Alura just laughed as the ostrich ran at her and cuddled with her. "My first ever pet. This is Gritty Jessie, my ostrich! She's smart, cunning, resourceful, and certainly helpful when in a tight spot." She stroked the young ostrich's head. "Such a good girl." Then she looked up to Ashlea. "They let us have pets here, right?"

"Yes, heh." Ashlea smiled. "I've got mine all at home… I'm surprised they allow you something that isn't a parrot."

Alura scrunched up her face and frowned. "Haha, very funny. I'll have you know that Jessie here is an intelligent ostrich."

"Does she talk?"

"No, but she does attack if I need help."

"Heh, more than our pets do. I got me a Firecat that'll give me a spell card to add to my deck when he grows to an ancient."

"Not exactly ideal, is it?"

"At least he never needs to be cleaned. Your ostrich seems to need a good washing." Gritty Jessie squawked angrily at the Pyromancer. "Hey, it's true!" The ostrich huffed and then jumped onto Aurora's head.

"Hehe, don't worry. She takes a while to warm up to people."

"How long did it take her to warm up to you, Ice Princess?"

Alura chuckled. "I hatched her, so five minutes."


	18. Chapter 18

It took a little longer for Alura to recover, but as soon as she was fit, she insisted on telling the headmaster what she had learned from the voice. She was surprised to find that he listened to her. "Hmm… this is serious… I'm afraid that you are right, my dear. Malistare seems to have some interest in you, but you aren't the first wizard that he shouldn't know but has interest in."

"Who else? We need to protect them. This is getting too out of hand if Malistare or whoever has gotten the cyclops to kidnap students, don't you think?"

"I do think, but I also know that Malistare has been busy with another target other than her, so she should be safe for now."

Alura took a deep breathe, grateful that no one else was in his office at the moment. "Sir, I don't know if you know this or not, but to capture me… well…"

"It's not easy?"

Alura glanced downwards towards her right. She frowned. "Not exactly…"

"Oh, but I know it isn't… Stormy Aurora Dove… especially with your specific training." Alura's eyes looked up at him in shock. Her eyes filled with fear and her hands started shaking. She felt her powers freeze her hands. "Don't worry, Alura, your secret is safe with me." Alura started biting her lip.

"How did you know?" Her voice was quiet and full of fear. She didn't want to be blasted with magic by the headmaster, nor did she want to have to find a way off the world without her ship.

Merle Ambrose gave a weak smile. "My dear, you may be the first Swashbuckler to gain the powers of the Giants, but you are not the first Pirate Wizard to come into my school."

"I'm not?"

"No, you are merely the fifth. It might surprise you to find that you've come into a school with one other. Though very few have heard of the pirate known as Fierce Lydia Rosethorn, she is not one to take lightly. I ran into her and discovered she had been gifted by the Giants to become an Ice Wizard."

Alura looked at all the facts and frowned. "Professor Greyrose was a pirate?"

" _Is_ a pirate, my dear. Every once in a while, I let her get a vacation where she can go and do as she wishes in her pirate persona. She's quite the sharpshooter though, so be careful."

"A musketeer?"

"Indeed." Ambrose's smile grew friendly as he chuckled. "You're the first to figure out about your professor though. How do you feel about that?"

"The fact that I figured out that I'm being trained by the 'Pixie Pirate', or the fact that I'm the first to figure it out?"

"Both."

Alura chuckled lightly. "As Bones would say, Bloody Brilliant!"


	19. Chapter 19

Aurora ran as fast as she could through the city of wizards, like Bones on the hunt. It had been two days since she had found out about her teacher being a pirate. She had found it amazing, but at the moment, she had something else on her mind.

Ashlea had left while Aurora was talking to the Headmaster, and she had never returned. She hadn't even responded on her watch. Aurora didn't like it. She asked around and found that she had gone on another quest to the Haunted Cave. Something was living in that tower that they had thought was abandoned. Alura cursed herself as she ran. They had searched that tower up and down, but somehow they had missed a wraith known as Lord Nightshade.

Alura ran into the cave, past the zombies and scarecrows. When she got to the tower, she reached in her magic bag and pulled out her spell deck and her compass. "Find Ashlea Stone, the Pyromancer." The compass started glowing, waiting for more information. Alura rolled her eyes. "Fine… Find Ash Firestone of Marelybone, the second in command of the Baker Street Irregulars." This time the compass started glowing brighter and then an arrow pointed where Ashlea was. It was pointing down. Alura frowned. They hadn't checked for a basement. Alura brought out an old slingshot. Though she had magic, she still preferred the element of surprise. She may not have been as good as Ashlea with targeting things, but she did have some experience with the old toy, after all, it had been hers first.

Alura took a deep breath and activated a skill from her pirate days. It was an illusion that would make her invisible to anyone who wasn't on her crew. She ran down with the years of practiced silence she had gained from being a pirate, surprised at how deep the stairs led considering the tower was on a cliff. She found Ashlea tired, beaten, and sitting in a cell. She was awake, and glaring at the shadowy figure that stood before her. Her eyes glared harder as she noticed Alura. Alura was unaware of Ashlea noticing her, but kept close to the walls. The illusion would fade soon and Alura figured it would be better to stay in the shadows.

Ashlea started to scratch at the ground, an old signal to say she wanted to get her hands on a weapon. Alura nodded and did something rash. She did another pirate trick that she knew called "Sneak Attack". Aurora slashed at the wraith from behind with her dagger that she had gotten, her Athame Dagger, that was allowed with her Wizard outfit. As the cloaked creature cried out in pain and shock, she ducked under him and threw her slingshot at Ashlea. Ashlea leapt up as she grabbed the slingshot and shot off two fireballs with its help. Ashlea kept the ghostly creature away with her fireballs, now being shot out of the slingshot instead of controlled by the Staff of Fire Cats that she usually used. Aurora started to pick the lock by reinforcing her dagger with Ice magic. The two worked in silence with deadpan stares on their faces, Aurora having taken off her glasses to concentrate more, and Ashlea staring through the bars. They continued this method until Aurora managed to break the lock on the door and released her best friend. Aurora then returned to her wizard method and started using defensive spells to cover Ashlea as she pelted the wraith with fireballs. The two made their way over to where Ashlea's gear was held and as soon as Ashlea got a hold of her staff, the wraith knew he was in trouble. The two girls looked to each other, as though able to read one another's mind, and nodded. They then faced the wraith and blasted it with a combination of fire and ice.

"You okay?" Alura asked Ashlea as she gathered the rest of her stuff. Alura was looking over the remnants of the wraith. He had left a key behind.

"Yeah, thanks for the rescue."

"That's what I'm here for, rescuing my dragon friend, heh."

"Great, now I still have to find the time to rescue you, mini giant."

"Eh, we'll think of something. Besides, so long as we got each other's back, nothing can hold us, right?"

"Bone's would probably disagree…"

"So would your mother, point please?"

Ashlea grimaced as she looked to her friend. Alura had the power of the frost giants on her side, and yet, she was still getting along with the dragon fire that lived in her. It was funny because everyone always said that the Frost Giants, the Tritons, and the Dragons always argued. "We're too good at helping people."

"We've been doing it since we were three, I see no reason to stop being defenders now, even if you do have an offensive ability." Alura grinned. "Know what this is?"

"A mystery for us to solve?"

"Sorta. It's a key to give to the headmaster and see what he knows about it."

Ashlea smiled as she sat herself down. "Mind if I rest first?"

"Here, I've got this." She put a hand on Ashlea and cast the teleportation spell. "Ashlea's Dorm." Once they were in Ashlea's dorm room, Alura helped the young Pyromancer over to her bed and started bandaging up her wounds. "When I get back, you should be fine. Stay here."

"Heh, you still think you're a captain?"

"No… I think I'm your friend, and that you got hurt because I left you alone too long…"

"Not your fault. Shit's been happening to me since I got here… Something's going down… don't know what yet though…"

Alura nodded slowly. She knew how much trouble followed Ashlea, and how much followed her. Trouble was drawn to them like a Kraken to the sea. Maybe that was what kept them together, watching each other's back. "I'm leaving Gritty Jessie to keep an eye on you. Don't do anything stupid while I talk to the headmaster."

"Funny, I thought I was the more experienced wizard…"

"Maybe, but this is turning into a war… I never liked war, but we both know which of us is more experienced with fighting a war…"

"Only against robots!"

Alura glanced back with a pained expression. "Yeah… you should know better than that…" Alura left the dorm leaving Ashlea and Gritty Jessie sitting in the room.

"Yeah… but it doesn't mean I can't wish it was the case…" Ashlea whispered, quoting Aurora's old line. From what Aurora's journals had said, it sounded like Aurora had been caught in the middle of many wars for one so young and in such a short amount of time.


	20. Chapter 20

Alura returned to the dorms with a concerned expression. She sat on the floor, wondering about what she had just learned. Ashlea looked at her with concern. "Aurora?"

Alura jolted at the sound of her name. "Wha? Oh, sorry… just thinking."

"What about?"

Aurora glared at the key in her hand. It was like a skeleton key but had onyx gems in the eye holes. "It's this key. The Headmaster doesn't recognize it, but I felt a great amount of death magic in it."

"How can you feel that anyway?"

"Oh, I'm not really sure, but I know that I've been able to tell what it was since I met Old Scratch…"

"Huh… may I see it? Or do you think I'm still too injured?" Ashlea frowned.

Aurora looked up at her with a pained look. She hadn't meant to offend her best friend. She just didn't want to lose her. She sighed, got up and grabbed a bottle of yum, and then threw both objects to her friend. "Sorry, Ash."

Ashlea grimaced as she realized her friend was still sensitive about stuff like that. Aurora had always hated disappointing people and making them feel inferior. "It's fine… I just don't want you to forget that I'm just as strong as you."

"Hehe, I actually think you're stronger."

Ashlea laughed before looking at the key in her hands. She took a swig of the Yum and decided it tasted like grape soda. She started pacing around while staring at it, much like Bones would do. Aurora couldn't help but smirk. Gritty Jessie had started to try and mimic the Pyromancer, much like it mimicked her owner when she did this. 'Good, Jessie's starting to like her…'

"Night Side."

"Night Side?"

"Supposedly hidden from the world, Night Side is a hidden area that fell off from the school. Now that I think about it, Night Side is actually rumored to be right under where the Death School was… Let me check something on the maps." She used her magic to summon a map. She took only a moment to start grinning like a cat who had caught a mouse. "Gotcha!"

"What?" Aurora looked up to her friend excitedly.

"The Death School's in Night Side! This key can get us there!"

"Where is Night Side?" Alura jumped up as though shocked with lightening.

"The waterfall if I'm right, let's go!"


	21. Chapter 21

The two girls ran to the waterfall after Aurora ordered Jessie to stay in the dorms. Ashlea couldn't help but notice that Aurora seemed to be laughing as though she was a child again. Her laughter was contagious to the young Pyromancer and she joined in on the laughter as they ran all the way to waterfall next to Unicorn way. Ashlea then jumped into the river with Aurora right behind her. Neither one hesitating as they splashed through the river towards the waterfall. Aurora used an icy shield to hold up part of the waterfall while they ran through it so that the water pressure didn't hurt them. When they got to the other side, they found a secret tunnel and a door that had the symbol of the Death School on its door. The two looked at each other and grinned.

"Well if that doesn't say 'Death School', then I don't know what does." Alura giggled as Ashlea got the key from her pocket.

"I have to agree." The dark skinned fire wizard laughed as the key started to glow. "This also seems to agree. Haha, Alura, we've hit the jackpot!" The key flew from her hand and into the door.

The large wooden door then faded away, revealing a darkened land that screamed "School of Death" or death magic at least. They entered cautiously but started smiling as they found that their hunch was right. "So… we gonna tell Bones, or just the Headmaster?"

"How's about both?" Ashlea grinned like a child at Christmas.

"Sounds right." They walked slowly over to the school of death's doors, just past a large cavern that was blocked off with a gate and had a sign that called it the "Sunken City".

Alura slowly opened the doors and her eyes widened. There was someone in there! He was reading some books and had a wand that was making the chalk write some notes on the black board. She pointed him out to Ashlea.

Ashlea gasped, "He's gotta be the assistant! He never leaves the school… Fuck, I bet he doesn't even know the school's gone underground!"

"Should we tell him?"

"… yeah… He really does need to know why he hasn't had a single student show up in… I think years… What the fuck has he been living off of?"

"Snack food?"

"Alura, he raises the undead, he's not a member of it." Ashlea chuckled as she remembered what Bones used to say on the topic.

"So? Some of that stuff never goes bad."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Would you two quite muttering and get in here? Honestly, you're both as bad as Melody Stone and Jennifer Nightshade." The eerie voice of the assistant teacher caught the two off guard. "Come in and have a seat. I haven't had any students come in in a while. Malistare's probably only allowing select students come now, hmph. He hasn't been the same since Jenny disappeared and his wife died."

"Did you say… Melody Stone?" Ashlea asked as the two slowly walked in through the darkened hall. 'Why would this Jenny influence him? Everyone always talked about his wife dying being the cause of this… is there more to the story?'

"Yes, your mother. Though she was a balance student, I wouldn't dare doubt her abilities with necromancy, especially with Jennifer guiding her. Now there was a student." The assistant turned around and looked at him from under his hood. He was like a short "Igor" that one would hear of helping a mad scientist. "I am Dworgyn, the assistant Death Teacher. If I'm not mistaken, you're Miss Ashlea Stone and… huh… I didn't know Jenny had a child."

Both girls looked at each other with wide eyes. Aurora then turned to the teacher. "Jennifer… Nightshade?"

"Oh yes, her pirate life was more well-known… let's see, what was that name… ah, yes, Ruthless Jennifer Dove." Aurora looked slightly pale at the revelation of what she had heard. Her mother really was another pirate wizard! It was possible! She could be both and many wouldn't care! "Don't looked so shocked, young lady. I'd assume your also the child of the fire wizard she had a thing for… what was his name again… he didn't have a pirate life… oh yes, David Rubywielder… smart boy… when he wanted to be. Not one for balancing things out though, then again, neither was Jenny. David grabbed too many life spells when he was allowed to… so did Jenny. They never got anything from the other schools, save for their own."

"My mother… was both…?" Aurora's voice was a soft whisper that seemed to have been shaken from its usual confidence.

"Oh yes, but seeing as how no one's told you, I'd have to assume that Jenny and David aren't around."

"My parents have been missing for longer than I can remember. I never met them." Aurora had a sad look in her eyes as she glanced to her right.

"Hmmm, shame really. You'd probably have liked them. Jenny was always a people person, and David was always trying to be a bit of a joker. I can think of very few Necromancers that were as popular as Jenny when she wanted to be influential."

Aurora and Ashlea looked at each other nervously. True, Aurora was a skilled spokesman, but she did not possess the charisma necessary to become popular. In fact, Aurora was bullied for being the human orphaned ward of Sherlock Bones when they had been in Marelybone. Only when she was in her detective mode or with Ashlea or Bones was she safe from the bullies. Though Aurora would argue that she was safe in her battle mode as well with her swords or staff at hand.

"Anyways, since you two are here, maybe you can tell the headmaster where we are so I can get some students. I really do hate being useless, but the Professor did something and I'm sure the students don't know where we are anymore."

"Um… quite right, sir. Let's go, Ash."

"Right."


	22. Chapter 22

"Weirded out?" Aurora asked left the Headmaster's castle after reporting what they had found in Night Side. The headmaster had been quite shocked, but assured the girls that he would inform the death students where the school had ended up.

"Yep. You?"

"Yep."

"You gonna be okay? I mean, you just found out…"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Aurora stopped and looked over her quests. "I got some stuff to do on Colossus Blvd. Then I heard there was a problem on someplace called Crab Alley if you want to meet me there later."

"Why not let me come with you to Colossus?"

"I don't want you to get a cold."

Ashlea frowned at the pathetic excuse. "I'll be fine. Let's go."

Ashlea noticed Aurora seemed to perk up at her insisting on coming along. "Thanks."

"No prob. Besides, Bones would have a fit if you went and got eaten by gobblers."

"By what?"

"You'll see."

And see she did, as the two came onto the street known as Colossus Blvd. Gobblers were large green creatures that ate almost everything in their path, especially sweets. Ashlea led Alura down the street towards a large sculpture of a Colossus where a young girl with brown skin and light brown hair was trying to fend off some evil snowmen.

"Hang on, Mindy!" Ashlea shouted as she cast a few fireball spells, startling the creatures.

Aurora ran in with her trusty Athame dagger starting to glow for some reason. She slashed at the snowmen, causing them to disappear in a flash of crystals. "What the?" She looked around. "That's not normal, right?" The other girls nodded as they looked at her, one with fear, the other with concern. The dagger in her hand started glowing more and flew out of her hands. She stepped back in fear. Aurora had face many things, from the undead to traitorous pirates, but flying daggers usually meant some ghost was fooling around. "Please tell me that isn't a ghost possessing my dagger. Honest, I didn't even get it from a chest!"

Mindy laughed and shook her head. "No, it is merely the blessing of the Frost giants. You seem to have been gifted by them." Relief spread through the three girls as a large bird appeared, holding the dagger in its claws. It was similar to Ashlea's Sun bird, but the coloring was all wrong. It was a Snow Bird. "This only happens to students of Ice. So, willing to introduce me to your friend there, Ash?"

Ashlea smirked as the Snow bird gave Alura back her dagger. "Mindy Pixiecrown, meet Alura Dusksong. Alura, meet Mindy. Mindy here is one of Professor Greyrose's top wizards in the third year. She knows almost everything there is to know about Colossus Blvd. Mindy, Alura's that kid I was telling you about, ya know, the one who could lead a kid into the middle of doomsday and manage to still survive."

Alura frowned. "Ash, have you been telling stories again?"

"Alura, you're fucking awesome! Come on, you know I haven't told anything that wasn't true."

Alura rolled her eyes. "Yeah, and if someone gives you a slingshot, you can nail any target you get. Don't overestimate yourself though. I've learned that no matter how impressive someone deems you, someone will always prove you are not what they say you are." Ashlea felt a pain in her heart as she looked at her friend's eyes go cold. Someone had hurt her in a way that she would take a very long time to recover from, if ever at all. Alura then turned towards Mindy. "What's up with the gobblers and snowmen?"

"Oh, well I've been trying to get rid of the gobblers with stinkweed potions, but it doesn't seem to be working. I'm not good at fighting though, so I can't make my way to the King Gobbler to try and get him to stop."

Alura looked over to Ashlea with the light in her eyes renewed. "We'll talk to him." Alura brought out her map. "Show me where we are and where he is."

Mindy thought about it for a moment, shrugged, and then pointed out the locations. "You'll have to be careful though. To get to him, you have to fight his son, Prince Gobblestone. Even then though, I doubt he'll listen to a Pyromancer and a thaumaturge… even though it is a weird combination."

"Why's it weird? She's offence, I'm defense."

"Not every Pyromancer gets along with the other schools, especially Ice school." Mindy grimaced as Ashlea blushed. "Far as I know, Ashlea's the first to not care about the schooling powers since… I think his name was David Rubywielder? He had friends in all the schools."

Alura then blushed. "Oh… eh, whateves. Let's go, Ash."

"Right, see ya, Mindy."

"See ya?" Mindy scratched her head. "Another strange wizard… how weird."


	23. Chapter 23

The two wizards ran off towards the castle in the far end of the street. Aurora smirked as she had an idea. She used her wand to summon up a snowball and threw it over her shoulder towards her friend. "HEY!" was the response as Ashlea had snow in her face. It always amazed Ashlea how fast Aurora seemed to bounce back from strange situations.

"Hehe, what? Too cold for you, Ash?" Ashlea responded by throwing a snowball into the back of the blonde's head. "Got it." Aurora giggled as they reached the castle. "Shall we knock?"

"I got it." Ashlea knocked on the door and the large doors opened. The two walked inside and frowned. There were some fat gobblers eating the furniture. "Um, excuse me!"

"Huh? You bring more snacks?" The larger one asked while stuffing his mouth with a chair. He had a small crown on his head, but the girls knew that didn't mean he was king.

"We're here to see the king."

"Oh, you can't see daddy right now. He's eating."

Alura and Ashlea looked to eachother and then back to the young prince. "Yeah we can." The two started towards the door where they heard a louder munching. The prince tried to stop them, but was scared off by Ashlea casting a small fireball spell.

When the two got to the top, they had expected a larger Gobbler, but they had not expected to see a giant one eating towers and nearby buildings! The two girls grimaced as the giant noticed them. "OH, ARE YOU HERE TO BRING ME MORE SNACKS?"

"No…" Alura took a deep breath to keep herself calm. 'I've got to tell the others about this thing. I bet this tops Bonnie Anne's story about the Troggies surrounding her.' She looked up at the giant who could no doubt eat her without having to chew. "We're here to tell you to go home. You're eating the entire street!"

"Go home? No, no, we can't do that. Mean witches have taken over our old home and kicked us out. Besides, we like it here. We shall call this place 'New Gobblerton'." The giant then handed a piece of paper that was decent sized for a wizard to the girls. "Here is my royal decree. If you surrender, maybe I will let you stay as our servants." The giant smiled as he continued eating a tower.

"Any ideas, Ash?"

"Take this thing to Ambrose and see what he says… unless you somehow have one of your famous ideas on how to overthrow an empire."

"I told you those were scrap! I didn't think you guys would seriously consider the ideas of a six year old as plausible!" Alura grumbled as they made their way back to the Commons with a spell. The two then made their way up Ambrose's tower. "Honestly, I was just thinking based off of what had already been done and what was a weakness in the security."

"Maybe so, but Bones agreed with you and now the security in Marelybone is based off of those 'childish' ideas of yours. You have some strange skills, Alura. You know that you can put them to a good use though. Do it."

Alura sighed. 'Ashlea's right… but why can I do this? Is it because of my parents? Because of how I was raised? Or is it as simple as it's because I'm wired differently like they all said? What if…'

"Hey, Aurora, you okay?" Aurora looked up at Ashlea. They were just in front of the headmaster's office.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, just thinking."

"About your crew?"

Aurora paused. She hadn't actually given much thought to them all in a while. She looked at her day counter and was shocked to see that she was well into her third month at Wizard City. 'They should have sent me a letter or postcard or something… are they okay…?'

"Aurora?"

"We need to sort this out so I can send a letter to the guys. I need to know if they're okay."

"Right."

The Pyromancer and Thaumaturge went into the office and explained the situation to the headmaster. The "Royal Decree" turned out to be some pictures of food and chicken scratches, making no sense to the wizards. Ambrose and Ashlea were looking over the map of Colossus Blvd. while Alura was trying to contact Sabudai or Milo. She grumbled as she found that she wasn't able to reach anyone from the Rosa Angela. "Frostbite." She bit her lip. 'Where are you guys? You were supposed to do a few runs, not disappear off the face of the Spiral! Where in the skyways are you guys?'

Ashlea noticed Aurora had started to shed a few silent tears. 'That's right… she hates feeling useless!' Ashlea then bit her lip. The headmaster was making no headway, and neither was she when she really thought about it. "Hey, Dove."

Aurora jolted at the old call sign that was also her last name. "What… Stone…?"

"Get your carcass over here and help us sniff out a clue on what to do. We need to take care of our Gobbler problem or Wizard City's gonna be a buffet for these green guys."

Aurora smirked, knowing full well what her old partner was up to. "Right… King got any generals or beings in power we can scare him with? Just a small show of power would do it be the look of it."

"Well he does have two barons from what I've been told." Ambrose pointed out two towers on the map. "Maybe if you take them down that will convince the King not to take over… I believe their names are Greebly and Rotunda. They live at opposite ends of the Blvd."

"Ash, you take on Greebly, and I'll handle Rotunda." Alura smirked as she adjusted her deck with some new spells that had appeared in it. "You good with that?" Ashlea nodded as she knew her friend needed some space and a way to "Blank out" as she called it. Something to keep her thoughts too occupied to really worry about whatever was plaguing her.

"Right, and then we'll find your ship. I promise you, your crew's fine, Aurora."

Aurora gave one last look to her best friend before porting back to the Blvd. "I sure hope you're right, Ash. I'm tired of losing this game." With that, she was gone in a flurry of snow, which much to the surprise of the headmaster, didn't leave snow on the floor like many others did.

"My, she must have that spell perfected."

"Yeah… she's a fast learner." Ashlea sighed as she gathered her things. 'But a slow healer…'


	24. Chapter 24

Taking down Rotunda was a slight challenge since he was a life type, but she shuddered when she heard Ashlea explain how easy it was to fight Greebly since he was an ice user. That fight would have been even harder for her. They made their way back up to the king and expressed their desires for him to, at the least, control his people from eating the city. He didn't believe that they had defeated his barons until one of his men came in shouting that they had heard someone had done the task. The king asked for them to be spared and the girls thought about it. Ashlea called up the Headmaster and he agreed with the decision to let them be so long as they stayed in that one area and didn't harm his students. Aurora was sitting on the stairs of the palace while all of this was happening. Her head hurt. She had started crying too much again, trying to figure out where her crew was, and why she felt so horrible.

"Aurora?" The blonde wizard looked up with tears in her eyes for some reason. Ashlea was standing over her with two staffs in hand. One held a red jewel while the other held a red sphere that seemed to be made out of ice. "You okay?"

Aurora sniffled and wiped her nose on her cloak. "Do you think… I'm doing the right thing?"

Whatever Ashlea had been expecting, it wasn't that question. "What's brought this up?" Ashlea sat next to her oldest friend. The youngest of the two, the child who always seemed to have an idea on what to do and where to go; she felt lost and was crying. She had been raised by a genius detective and was now a detective apprentice, a swashbuckler, and now to top it off, she was a thaumaturge. "Aurora?"

"Ashlea, I'm scared." The brown skinned girl's eyes widened into a mahogany brown with shock. Aurora never admitted to being scared of anything but spiders, and even then, she was never like this. "I'm out of my element. This isn't the Baker St. Irregulars anymore. This is the whole spiral! Back on the streets of Marelybone, we could turn to Dr. Dawson if something happened. If we didn't know something we'd go to Bones or your mom." She brought out her necklace that Milo had given her from her mother. "Out in the Skyways, I didn't know what I was doing or how we had survived as long as we did. I don't even know why those guys followed me as long as they did. They're all adults! I'm one of the youngest pirate captains in the skyways! I was raised to be a lady from Marelybone! I've been attacking pirates, sinking ships, destroying robots for the last four years…!" She was sobbing now. "When I found out about my powers, I scared my crew! I was so afraid. I froze a robot that was about to kill some wizard who was being careless! He saw me and thought I was a strangely dressed thaumaturge! Then he saw my crew and ran away screaming. This was in the Cool Ranch Skyways… I didn't put it in the journal because I was too scared." Ashlea started rubbing her friend's back, trying to reassure her that everything would be alright. "The others looked at me with pity…" Aurora hated being pitied. It never helped her, only hurt her. "I couldn't read them. I think they were scared of me… Milo talked me into signing up here so that I could control it better. I agreed because I knew it was as kind a way to get rid of me as they were willing to do." She held her face in her hands as she let out her fear that her crew had abandoned her. "They don't want anything to do with me since I'm a wizard! I'm a freak!"

"Aurora… no one would willingly abandon you after working with you for a year, never mind four." Ashlea hugged the young pirate wizard. "I'm sure they haven't abandoned you. You're there captain."

"Ash, Ratbeard is a more qualified captain than I am. Sabudai has been my first mate since the beginning, and I'm sure he could pilot my ship better than me. Milo was a captain for the Marelybonian Army before he joined Mom's crew. That's three different captains that I had on my ship! THREE!" Aurora felt her migraine eating at her, pain spiking in different places all over her scalp. "I feel drained."

"Aurora…" Ashlea sighed. "Come on, let's get you some rest back at the dorms. We can also switch out your wand for the new Icy Staff of Doom that the gobblers gave us. You need some rest…" Aurora had cried herself to sleep in her friend's arms on the steps of the coldest castle in Wizard City. It was not something that either of them had wanted, but Ashlea now knew that her friend had been suffering doubt for longer than any of them could have imagined. Ashlea sighed once more and cast a teleportation spell on the two of them and their things.

She gently placed the quivering wreck that was her best friend into her hammock and muttered something about being useless; a feeling that was becoming all too common for the young duo, seeing as how once upon a time they could do anything. She placed a set of headphones onto the young thaumaturge so that she wouldn't hear what was happening.

Ashlea grabbed her magic scroll and started a trick that she knew Aurora wasn't capable of yet. "Find Sabudai of the Rosa Angela." Ashlea was using the scribe ability, something her mother had taught her last year when she visited Marelybone for Christmas.

She was half surprised when the horse barbarian answered. "Who is calling?"

"My name is Ashlea Stone. Are you a part of… of Aurora Dove's crew?"

Sabudai nodded with a touch of concern in his eyes. "Yes, I am her first mate. Who are you? Is our captain in trouble?"

"No, not at the moment. I'm an old friend of hers. She's resting now, but…" Ashlea looked over to Aurora, seeing her weakened, and frowned. "She had a breakdown today. She started doubting herself. I've known Aurora Dove since we were three, and I've never seen it that bad."

Sabudai started biting his lower lip as he understood the gravity of what it meant when Aurora had a breakdown. "I had hoped that she would not have one while we were away. We are taking longer than we thought. There was information that we had to get to in Cool Ranch…"

"Aurora's worried about you guys and she thinks you hate her for having wizard magic." Ashlea explained the whole speech that Aurora had given while they were on Colossus Blvd. "She thinks you guys took mercy on her for some reason and just abandoned her here so you wouldn't have to deal with her."

"We did not leave her there to abandon her. We fully intend to pick up our captain when we have finished. We left her there so that she could take a break from being a pirate and train on her wizarding magic. She will do no good to anyone if she cannot control those powers and hurts herself." He sounded really concerned for the young wizard pirate.

"How long do you think it will take to finish? She's really worried."

Sabudai thought for a few moments. "Not soon enough. One of the men has decided to take on their mission on their own. I believe he is currently in Crab Alley there in Wizard City. Perhaps spending some time with him would help to reassure her? I know that another of our men was thinking of going to Krokotopia later for a bit while the rest of us do quests as well."

"Really? Aurora's almost skilled enough to be allowed to Krokotopia, and she said she had to investigate something in Crab Alley later."

"I'm certain. . . thank you for taking care of our captain for us, Ms. Stone."

"Hey, she's my best friend. She'd do the same for me, and has." Ashlea then looked at her watch, it was starting to get late. "Why can't she contact you guys?"

"The watches that we have are broken and we need to get back to Skull Island to repair them. They were damaged in a thunderstorm that we flew into."

"A storm?" She looked towards her sleeping friend, who had finally calmed down it seemed. "Aurora loves a good storm."

"Yes, which is ironic because it was a storm that took her parents from what Milo said."

"Really? Huh…" She looked at her watch again and noticed how late it actually was. "I gotta go. I'll try to show Aurora how to scribe so she can contact you. You said someone's on Crab Alley from the crew?"

"Yes, one of our newer members, Bart Hawkins. The captain will recognize him. I must go myself. I need to switch watches with one of the others."

"Alright, be safe…"

"You as well, young wizard."


	25. Chapter 25

Aurora woke up the next morning with a headache. "Ungh… Ash?"

"Right here." Ashlea smirked as she handed her friend a pastry. "Hungry?"

"Thanks… sorry about yesterday."

"It's fine. Did a few things while you were out of it though."

"Oh?"

"Yep."

Aurora waited a moment for Ashlea to clarify, but the Pyromancer kept a smug look on her face. "So?"

"So, what?"

Aurora frowned. "So what did you do?"

Ashlea grinned. "I used my scribe ability to contact someone and found some info for ya."

Aurora rolled her eyes as she placed her glasses back onto her face. "I'll bite, what do ya got?"

"You're crew is safe, but their watches were destroyed, and one of them is on a quest in Crab Alley." Aurora's eyes widened before she shrunk back in fear. She was still afraid that they hated her. "Aurora, they don't hate you. They're worried about you. That's why you're here, to learn control, just like me. Aurora, it's so we don't hurt ourselves when we get out of here. That's the reason this city has a whole street for each school!"

Aurora sighed as she thought about her friend's words. Though they made sense logically, Aurora still had a nagging fear in her mind. Something was going down, and by the feel of it, it would require both her lives as a pirate and a wizard, and possibly even her original life as a detective, to stop it. "Who's in Crab Alley?"

"I think Sabudai said it was Bart something…"

"Strong Bart Hawkins, a crab I picked up in Valencia, love for art, knack for spells. He's a witchdoctor class."

"Huh… well at least he can pull it off that he's normal here."

Aurora rolled her eyes and chuckled. "So, we gonna go today, or am I too ill?"

"Grab your staff and bag, and we'll check out Crab Alley. It's in the middle of Triton Ave."

"Really?"

"Really."


	26. Chapter 26

Aurora was standing at the edge of a cliff that had an anchor attached to it. She was curious as to what was down below the surface of the river that flowed through the city, and wondered if Ashlea had been pulling her leg about her crew member being there. Ashlea had gone a little farther up the street to get some water breathing potions from the miller at the Storm Mill. Though Aurora was hesitant to let her friend go off on her own again, she knew that she was just being over cautious and that her friend had been fine without her and probably better off as well. As this thought was about to strengthen, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to the smile of Ashlea Stone, who was holding up two bottles that looked like grape juice.

"Hey."

"Hey, got us the water breathing potions. You might need to take off your glasses though. They won't be of any use in the water."

Aurora thought about this and grinned. She concentrated on a small part of her pirate outfit, her goggles. Within seconds, her silver glasses were replaced with the set of silver goggles she used for battle and for when she was a pirate. "How's this?"

"Perfect." Ashlea grinned. She handed one of the bottles to the blonde thaumaturge. "Bottoms up!"

"Right." The two drank all the contents of the bottles and then placed them into their bags for possible use later. "Last one in is a scaredy cat!" Aurora laughed as she jumped off the cliff with Ashlea quickly following behind. Nearby wizards who saw them widened their eyes in shock, as many would just climb down the rope rather than jump off a cliff.

The impact of hitting the water knocked most of the air out of the two girls, and left slight bruises on them, but they didn't care. Aurora quickly tested to see if the potion had done its job. She was relieved to find that it had and that her friend was breathing fine as well. 'I wonder if we can talk under water too…'

"Let's go, Alura!" Ashlea answered her question without realizing it.

"Right…" Aurora smiled as she followed Ashlea towards the underwater kingdom of the crabs. The kingdom was definitely fancy and old fashioned looking, but also had a touch of modernism to it.

"I'm telling you, Bart, things just ain't right here. The king's acting funny and doing things he'd never do before. Not to mention all these Riverclaws running about." An old crab was talking to his nephew about the current situation in their kingdom.

"Don't worry so much, Uncle Herman. I'm sure we'll figure something out." Aurora chuckled as she recognized the voice of Bart Hawkins.

"Sounds like you could use some assistance if there's an issue with the royals around here." Aurora smirked as her hair floated in her hood. She wondered if she should tell Bart who she was, but the look on his face said he already knew.

"Well, well, who do you kids think you are that you can solve our problems?" Herman asked while Bart smirked.

"They call me Alura Dusksong around here, and this is my associate, Ms. Ash Firestone." Ashlea couldn't help but roll her eyes again. 'Even with being away from Bones and Marelybone so long, she still acts like she them.'

"And you two think we need…"

"Easy uncle, easy. I think a little outside interference will be welcome here." The younger crustacean smiled at the two wizards. "Name's Strong Bart Hawkins, pirate witchdoctor, art expert, and member of the Rosa Angela's crew. Nice to have a proper introduction, ain't it?"

"Indeed, Bart." Aurora smiled a wide childish smile without showing her teeth. "How's the crew?"

"Chasing down some Banditoads in Cool Ranch last I saw them. How have you been?"

"I have magic running through my veins, a bottle of Yum in my robes and satchel, and a dagger close to hand, Bart. I'm doing well enough." The young pirate wizard laughed.

Ashlea smirked as she noticed her friend's spark returning to her eyes. "So, what's the issue with the royals?"

Bart looked at Ashlea with a grimace. "Well it seems that King Thermidor is acting funny, not that I've seen him since I left to explore the Spiral for artworks of all styles. Imagine my surprise when I come home to find Riverclaws running the place and the royal advisor locked up in the White Tower Prison. Does that sound like much of an issue to you?"

Aurora and Ashlea looked at each other and frowned. "Sounds like that scenario you came up with, eh, Aurora?"

"I had a ton of those. Let's get over to the White Tower Prison first and find out what the advisor can tell us."

"Right, then we'll check out the king."

"Right." Aurora then turned towards her crustacean crew member. "You joining in? Or you staying with your Unc?"

"These Riverclaws usually mean trouble to anyone… but seeing as how you already have backup, Captain… I'll just stay here with my Uncle. Let me know if you need a touch of help or some information. I still know the place well enough."

Ashlea looked at Aurora with a touch of concern, but she found Aurora giving a cocky smirk. "I understand. We'll stop by after we talk to this advisor. Got a name?"

"Sir Thomas. He's in the tower at the end of the lane. Think you can find it?"

Aurora showed her special compass to the crab. "I got an upgrade. Buildings that I have missions, or quests, into light up blue. We'll find it no prob." She then turned to Ashlea. "Come along, Ms. Stone. The game is afoot!" Aurora then grinned and started swimming the crawl stroke through the city with Ashlea hot on her trail.

Aurora just laughed though as Ashlea started yelling at her. "WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT SAYING STUFF LIKE THAT! YOU SOUND LIKE BONES YOU LITTLE TWIT OF AN INVESTIGATOR! DOVE? DO YOU HEAR ME, DOVE? DOVE!"

Bart chuckled as he saw his captain acting like a child again, just like she usually did on a mission before she had found her ice powers. 'Whoever this Ashlea Firestone is, she is definitely a good influence on the captain… I hope she sticks around… the captain could use a friend that wasn't a pirate first.'


	27. Chapter 27

The White Tower had only two guards in it, both of which were easy for Alura and Ashlea to defeat. Aurora gave a small pout after the guards ran away. "That was too easy for my liking. Sir Thomas? Are they always so quick to get out of a fight?"

"Unfortunately, yes… um… who are you two?" Sir Thomas was a short crab wearing the funny clothing of a royal court.

Alura looked at Ashlea for a lead while the other looked back for the same reason. They nodded, and then looked back to the crab. "I'm Alura Dusksong, and this is my associate, Ms. Ashlea Firestone. We're wizards from Wizard City. We heard from a friend that there's trouble with the king… care to let us know what? We'd like to help."

The crab looked confused for a moment, but then rushed into his explanation about how the king had come back from a world tour with Selena Gomez. He was apparently a music star. When he returned, there was a crack in the river walls. The king and some guards went in and none of the guards came back, for the king was now in the presence of Riverclaws! The king then started acting strange, and threw Sir Thomas in jail just for doing his job as the royal advisor! "… he's not acting like himself. I need you to talk to Captain Jonah. He's likely to know what's going on!"

"We're on it, Sir Thomas. Alura, think you can pick the lock?" Ashlea asked as she headed for the door.

Alura took a look at the lock and grumbled. "I'll give it my best, but this one's corroded from the water, not to mention it's not the typical lock I deal with. We might really need the key for it."

"The king will have the key. He'll be keeping it on his person." Sir Thomas explained as calmly as he could.

Alura took a deep breath, feeling herself be at peace in the river, though it was truthfully the place of the tritons while she held the magic of the giants in her. "I'll try and get into the palace to get the key. Ash, try and talk to this captain. Meet back here in an hour?"

"Right."


	28. Chapter 28

Alura grumbled as she made her way into the tower. Ashlea was already there trying to calm down the frightened crab in the cell. "No luck?"

"None, he was too hostile, and talking about a curfew."

"What time is it?"

"It's only nine."

"Ash… that's past my bedtime…" Alura pointed out, reminding Ashlea that she had been taken from Marelybone when she was still a young teenager and Bones still instigated a bedtime for her. Aurora was one who hated being a disappointment and would have likely kept to her bedtime schedule unless told otherwise by Bones. She was usually too obedient for her own good, save for when on a case or someone's life was at risk.

Ashlea rolled her eyes. "Alura, you're eighteen, right?" The thaumaturge nodded slowly, wondering what her friend's point was. "Grow up and realize you're an adult now."

Alura winced as though someone had cut her with a blade. "Ash…" She shook her head. "Never mind…" She then looked to Sir Thomas. "Who's the head cook? The king's asking for his Tea and Crumpets."

"WHAT! The king never liked those before! Why start now?" He shook his head to concentrate on the question at hand. "Catherine… she's the head cook. She'd be making the crumpets… and the tea… see if she can get you in."

"Thanks…" The two wizards walked outside where they stopped, out of earshot of anyone else. "Ashlea…" The Pyromancer looked at her friend with concern. She rarely used her full name. "I'm sorry if you think I'm too childish to be around."

Ashlea bit her lip as she realized her comment about growing up had stung more than she thought it would. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

"Maybe so, but it doesn't make it any less true… you just don't remember why I don't act like a grown up a lot anymore." Aurora started to swim down the street with Ashlea behind her, trying to understand what she meant.

When the two made their way to Catherine's house, she was more than happy to pass on the charge of bringing the snack to the king. "That's not my king. King Thermidor is charming, handsome… that thing in there is none of that. You have to see it for yourself to believe." Aurora and Ashlea nodded. Ashlea held the tea while Aurora held the crumpets.

It was a strange thing to have Aurora be silent through the swim. Her cold calculating gaze hidden by her goggles started to analyze everything around them, from the kelp that floated harmlessly on the sidewalks to the Riverclaws and the guards that roamed the streets.

Finally, Ashlea couldn't take it anymore. "Aurora, I'm sorry."

Aurora stopped where she floated. She turned back to Ashlea with a saddened expression on her face. "It's not your fault, Ash. Look, if something's bugging you that much, we'll talk about it above water. Right now, we've got a kingdom to save."

Ashlea sighed, knowing that that was all she would get out of her friend in this mood. She just prayed that she'd lighten up again. A dark Light Dove was always a creepy one, and a depressing one as well. As they entered the castle, having got past the guards by showing they had the Royal Crumpets, Aurora and Ashlea frowned as their minds clicked together once more and they found themselves looking at something that was obviously not King Thermidor.

It was a large Riverclaw wearing a set of clothing that was obviously too tight fitting around his over large scaled body. "Who dares interrupts King Amadeo… I mean, King Thermidor! Oh… Have you brought my crumpets?"

Ever trained as proper ladies, the two curtsied in their robes and held forth the crumpets and tea. Whoever this Amadeo was, he knew his manners on how to properly eat tea and crumpets. After being dismissed, Aurora and Ashlea looked at each other, both having the mindset of being on a case again. "Well, Dove… what's the list of theories for this one?" Aurora was always good at coming up with theories, most of which turned out correct.

Aurora grimaced. "These crabs need glasses if they can't tell who that is. I think the king's just through the crack these Riverclaws came from."

"That you're theory?"

"Better than the king is dead and the Riverclaws are keeping control of this place till we find an heir. Those can take ages to fix."

"Right… where to first?"

"We gotta go back to Catherine and let her know she's not crazy. That's not her king. Then we should make our way over to Sir Thomas to see if he has a way to get past the guards that are in front of the break in the wall." Aurora indicated to the guards in front of the break in the river wall.

"I'm surprised you aren't trying to use your pirate skills to sneak in." Ashlea chuckled.

Aurora glanced at her with a somewhat amused look on her face. "I left my pirate costume on my ship, Ash, so whatever tricks you think I can pull might only be possible due to my uniform." Aurora could indeed use her piratical skills while dressed as a wizard, and sometimes even look like she was wearing pirate clothing when she wasn't. "Besides, we still need to talk to Sir Thomas and see if he has a plan."

"You gonna be okay?"

"You meaning about earlier?"

"Yeah…"

Aurora paused for a moment before continuing her swimming. "I'll be fine, Ash. There are worse things that have happened to me than being told to grow up…"

"Want to name one?"

Aurora glanced back to Ashlea with a grimace. "Being told your parents are both wizards, and one of them is also a pirate, while also being told they're dead because of a storm. That's worse… mainly because both pirates and Wizards have teleportation spells on them that could have gotten them to safety. They had the choice of Wizard City, or in my mother's case, she could have easily ported to Skull Island. None of this is adding up, and I don't like it, Ashlea. Nor do I like the idea that the professor of the Death School wants to get rid of me because someone told him that I'd meddle in his plans. It sounds like the Armada's found me and is messing with me the best they can…" The look on her face, even with her eyes hidden by her goggles, was that of a serious adult, and detective, leaving no room for doubt when she was involved. "Ashlea, when we get to the surface, I think you should stay away from me for your own safety." She received a smack on the head for that. "What? It's a legit opinion for your safety!"

"It's a fucking stupid remark of someone who's too used to being on their own! Do you get your crew to do the same thing?"

"Sometimes… why?"

Ashlea growled and whacked her best friend with her staff again. "We're Dove and Stone, the second greatest detective team from Marelybone! If I had known what was going to happen to you, I wouldn't have left you there on your own!" Aurora froze with shock. "You may be used to being on your own, and you can take care of yourself, I have no doubt about that, but damn it, Aurora!" Ashlea huffed for a few minutes, trying to figure out what to say, now that she had her friend's attention. "Look, I was getting in more trouble without you around anyway, alright. So please, for my sanity at least, let me make up for leaving you in Marelybone and stay by your side this time." She looked at Aurora with pleading eyes. "Please…"

Aurora hugged Ashlea, shocking the dark skinned Pyromancer. "You don't have to make anything up to me… but thank you." Aurora then smirked as she took her goggles off to make them dry again with a spell. She had been crying in them. After she put them back on, she looked at her friend ruefully. "You know we still have to go and talk to Sir Thomas and Catherine. We'll go with Catherine first since she noticed the king wasn't the king. It's only fair."

"Right… lead the way, Dove." They would be fine.


	29. Chapter 29

Needless to say, both Catherine and Thomas were upset and disturbed by the truth of their king. Catherine was only relieved that she hadn't gone crazy after all. Alura, Ashlea, and Sir Thomas were now trying to figure out what to do next.

In truth, Ashlea was hoping Aurora would figure something out, just like she always did. Aurora always had some idea if only because she noticed something that others missed somehow. Thankfully, Aurora still had an idea. "What about the ravine where the king originally disappeared to? What if he's still there?"

Ashlea smirked. "Dove, I do believe you've done it again!" She knew that Aurora was playing like she had just thought of it even though they had already discussed the idea. The show was mainly for Sir Thomas.

"Of course! The king is probably still being held captive there! Oh my, but you'll have to get past the royal guard!" The crab was ecstatic.

"Another fight?" Ashlea suggested.

"Nah, we've done that… what if we had an official document?"

"You would need the king's seal. That's in his desk in the castle." Thomas was unsure that the young thaumaturge could get there.

Alura just smirked. "Ash, you help him write up the official document. I've been itching for a good practice session. I'm worried that I'm getting rusty."

Ashlea laughed. "You go girl!"

Fifteen minutes later, Aurora returned from the palace scowling. Sir Thomas looked concerned. "Did you not find it?"

"No, I found it. I just wasn't fast enough to my liking. UGH, I'm so slow!" She muttered as she handed the seal off to the crustacean.

"Slow? You've been gone for fifteen minutes! That's including the friction of water! What the fuck do you mean by slow, Aurora?"

Aurora turned her gaze over to Ashlea. "I had Bart time me, and he said that I got it in six minutes. SIX! I was hoping for five, especially since I didn't meet any resistance." After a minute she started laughing. "I guess that means I need more underwater sneaking practice, haha."

Ashlea grimaced. "Maybe you should lay off the Yum for a bit."

Aurora looked at her partner with slight confusion. "I haven't touched it since I woke up."

"Oh…" The two looked at their watches. They had been under water for a day and a half now.

Alura then frowned. "Ash, how long do these water breathing potions last?"

Ashlea laughed. "It's a permanent affect. No matter what, now we can breathe on land or under water."

Aurora laughed and smiled. "HAHA Oh man, now all I need is a tail and I can be a mermaid!"

"Haha, you're a thaumaturge, not a storm wizard!"

"So what? I've always wanted to live underwater. I don't see why I can't now."

"Hehe, we'll see about that later on, but first, the king?"

"Right… how's the document looking?"

"Quite official, and finished." Sir Thomas handed it off to the dark skinned girl who looked it over with a grin.

"Let's go, Dove. This would fool even Bones, I'm sure."

"You want to test that?" Alura smirked as Ashlea paled. "I didn't think so, but you are right, we'd better go."


	30. Chapter 30

Aurora found herself rolling her eyes once more as they entered the breach in the wall. "That was still too easy."

"We still have to find the king." Ash reminded her blonde friend.

"Yeah… hey, who's that?" There was an injured crab in armor sitting with his back against a large sea shell. The two wizards swam up to him. "You okay?"

"I'm… fine…" He seemed short of breathe. "I have to find King Thermidor…"

"Take it easy, we'll find the king for you. What's your name?" Aurora asked in a soothing voice.

"I'm Captain Roderick of his majesties personal guard. We were all separated shortly after arriving in here. My men… my king… I don't know where anyone is…" The two wizards looked to each other and then nodded. Ashlea brought out her medical kit while Alura started swimming past the shell to look for the other guards and the king. "Hey, wait! She can't go alone!"

"Don't worry about her, Alura's the better swimmer out of the two of us, though I bet I can still beat her in a race. If anything, she'll be better off on her own for a stealth mission like this." Ashlea spoke calmly as she skillfully bandaged the crab's wounds. The two of them had learned a lot from Dr. Watson, the assistant to Sherlock Bones.

Alura swam through the deep warrens, taking note that it was all one trail, even though there were caverns all around. Her eyes hardened to a glare as she slipped behind some coral to hide from some Riverclaw guards. 'What do we have here?' Three guards were guarding some crustaceans that were obviously part of the royal guard for the king. 'Looks like I might need Aurora for this one after all…' She floated over to the cage where the royal guards were. "I'm here to help." She whispered as she started picking the lock with her knife. The guards nodded silently and stood between her and their captors, hoping to keep them from noticing her. "Any idea where the king is?"

One of the guards closest to her started whispering back. "He's being held in the Wailing Cavern just past here. You'll need something to light the way in order to see in there though."

"I've got a pyromancer with the captain back near the entrance to here. We'll be fine." Alura smirked as she heard the klick of the lock. "We'll find the king, you guys get to the entrance where the captain is. I'll meet you there to retrieve my friend so we can get the king."

"What are you going to do while we retreat?"

Alura smirked. "I'm going to play distraction."


	31. Chapter 31

Alura smirked as she swam towards the crowd of crab guards and her friend, Ashlea. "Having fun, Alura?"

"Loads, Ash. Gonna need your help though. We gotta go through a dark cave to find the king, and I'm not so good at those spells."

"No prob. We got this." The two girls nodded and set off. On their way down the trail, Ashlea noticed that there were quite a few frozen riverclaws. "I see you were busy."

Alura shrugged. "They were messing with me."

"Right… let's go." The two swam into the farthest cave in the back of the warrens.

With Ashlea lighting the way with her staff, the two made it through the dark cavern with little trouble. What they saw on the other side caused both teenage wizards to stop. King Thermidor was singing on stage, practicing for a concert by the looks of it! He was blissfully unaware of the danger his kingdom was in!

"You have got to be kidding me." Both teens muttered as they swam closer and closer to the stage.

It wasn't that the king was a bad singer, it was just that he didn't look any good. He looked like a messed up version of the Beetles, a very old but popular band of bugs that wore wigs and played music all across the Spiral.

"Um, King Thermidor?" Alura asked cautiously as she approached the stage.

The king stopped singing and looked down at the two girls. "Oh, hello? Are you here for the concert?"

"We're here to bring you back home. You're kingdom needs you!" Ashlea implored as the King seemed to be a bit on the ditzy side of things.

"Oh? Well I can't leave just yet, I'm waiting for Amadeo of the Riverclaws to return. He's just visiting my kingdom actually. He said he'd be right back… hmm… that was a little while ago though…"

Alura rolled her eyes. "He's just taking over your kingdom while you play rockstar." She was very blunt at times.

"He's what!"

Ashlea nodded. "Yeah, he's got everyone worried, and he locked up Sir Thomas! For no reason!" Ashlea was restraining herself from cussing in front of royalty, much like she would at home in Marelybone.

Alura suddenly collapsed with her hands to her ears as a loud buzzing noise ripped through the room. "AGH!"

"Alura!" Ashlea swam over to the blonde wizard who was still clutching her ears and panting as though in pain. "What happened?"

"High pitched noise… Bloody Hell! Still over sensitive ears… bloody painful…" Alura gasped. She was actually close to cursing, and for her to do that would mean she was in serious pain.

"Hang on, I'll find it and stop it. Nothing down here should even be that high pitched!"

When the two were young, they had accidently discovered that Alura had ears that were almost as sensitive as a dog's ears. This made her get painful migraines when someone blew a dog whistle, but not a normal one. Ashlea was not as sensitive, though she had also grown up around the dogs of Marelybone for her whole life. Ashlea swam around the area, looking for the source of her friend's discomfort. When she looked backstage, she found a door that was guarded by lasers.

"Shit! A laser grid…" She looked back to Alura who was still shaking in pain. 'Hang on, I'll figure this out.' She looked around and saw some electric eels that were called Telleric Eels. She cast her magic at three of them and shoved them at the laser grid. The eels absorbed the electricity. Ashlea then made her way into the room on the other side of the door.

Inside the room was a mad scientist named Dr. Zigmund. He was messing around with what looked like Storm batteries. Dr. Zigmund was a Riverclaw with a large lab coat on. He looked at Ashlea with a half mad look as she entered. "What are you doing here? Did you come to steal my work?"

"No, I came to figure out what's hurting my friend." She glanced over to the batteries and noticed they were sparking dangerously. 'That would do it. They're broken too, so that really must hurt Aurora's ears.'

"Your friend?"

"Yeah, she's over sensitive to high pitched sounds. Those batteries are broken and fizzing dangerously. I wouldn't be surprised if that was what was hurting her."

"You've come to destroy my experiments!" He growled, suddenly attacking her with what spells that he knew.

Ashlea rolled her eyes as she dodged them and dispelled others. She threw a few fireballs here and there to distract him as she made her way towards the batteries. 'I would usually like to have some backup while I try and fix these, but my partner is currently suffering a migraine.' Ashlea tinkered with the broken batteries after shutting off their power. Every once in a while she'd cast a spell to keep the mad man away from her. She was happy to notice that he was starting to get his sense back to normal, or at least away from the mad man part. Finally, after Dr. Zigmund had stopped coming near her, Ashlea had managed to fix the storm batteries. "There, that should do it." She then turned to the doctor. "See, I didn't ruin your fucking experiments. I just fixed the batteries that were giving off a fucking High pitched noise."

With that, Ashlea left a very stunned scientist to his empty and peaceful sounding lab. Aurora was now sitting up with a block of ice she had summoned for her headache with the king pacing around trying to figure out how to get his kingdom back. Aurora smirked when she saw Ashlea. High pitched noises always hurt her and made her feel weak for a few minutes. "Thanks for shutting it up. What was it?"

"Just some scientist's batteries being broken and he didn't fix them. You okay now?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I still got a bit of a headache, but the pain from the sound is gone so my headache will go away soon enough."

"What, Yum don't cure that shit?"

"Nope."

"Figures."

"Yeah, hehe."

"So… what's the plan, Dove?" Ashlea asked as she sat on the stage with Aurora while the king kept pacing behind them.

"I say we take the fight to Amadeo. You in?"

"Girl, as if you have to ask!" Ashlea smiled as she gave her best friend a playful punch on the shoulder.

"Well then, let's go."

The two wizards escorted the king to where his guards were and swam out of the breach towards the castle. They were allowed in quickly and made their way towards the throne room.

"What are you two doing here?" Amadeo asked as he sat upon the throne.

"We're here to place King Thermidor back on the throne… Amadeo." Alura's voice was as cold as the ice that came from her staff.

The Riverclaw growled as he stood up from the throne. "So you have figured it out, have you? A shame really, I liked you two. I was hoping to make you my servants." Both girls frowned. If they were serving any royalty, it would be the Queen of Marelybone, no other. "Ah well, looks like I'll have to destroy you instead."

Alura looked to Ashlea with a chuckle. "Stone, I think he needs to be taught a lesson, don't you?"

Ashlea laughed as she mocked her friend's usual vocabulary. "Oh, indubitably, my dear, Dove." The two chuckled as they got into their fighting positions. "Any particular tactic you want to use?"

"Steam?"

"Hmmm… you know what? Why not. But we gotta make sure we don't boil alive."

"I'll cover the cold, you turn up the heat."

"Right!" With that, both wizards tapped their staves to the ground, allowing their powers to flow. The water around them started to turn into a mist, as it seemed that Alura's power was more dominant. They had tricked their enemy!

Ashlea snuck up behind the "King" and shot some fireballs at him. Alura had used the fog that now covered the entire throne room as a cover for her as she made an attack to the opposite side of Ashlea with a frost snake and some Ice balls.

"AGH!" Amadeo shouted as he was attacked from both sides. Suddenly, Ashlea's fire was hotter and Alura had started making her ice colder! The attack on two fronts was too much for him, especially with the drastic change of temperature! "ENOUGH! I give up!"

As suddenly as it began, the fog dissipated and the two wizards were right back where they had started the fight, as though they had never left the area. "That was too easy, Stone."

"I agree, Dove. He's such a wimp." The two had their stone faces on as though they were playing poker.

Amadeo was panting heavily from their small volley of attacks. "You could have killed me!"

The girls raised their eyebrows. "Not with those moves we couldn't have." Amadeo just looked at them like they were insane as he collapsed to the ground. They had saved the crab kingdom.


	32. Chapter 32

Alura was talking to Strong Bart Hawkins while Ashlea delivered a love/thank you letter from the king to Catherine the cook for noticing that the king was a fake. Aurora was glad to hear that everyone was fine and Bart had brought her the profiles of the people who wanted to join her crew. She was looking through some of them when Ashlea returned. "Hey, Ash. How'd it go?"

"The king's a better poet than I thought, but I still nearly gagged at how mushy it was."

"Figures." She then turned her attention back to Bart. "Hey, Bart, can ya do me a favor and tell Sabudai that he can give these people a trial run until I get back. I'm starting to get the hang of my Ice magic, but I don't want to risk it just yet."

"Aye, not to worry, Captain. We understand." The crab smiled as he accepted the files back. "I'll tell Sabudai so long as you do me one last favor."

Aurora smirked with interest. "Oh? And what favor be that?"

"Tell Milo and Sarah I said hi when you go to Krokotopia."

Aurora smiled and laughed. "No problem, Bart."

Bart then looked over at Ashlea. "I also have one favor to ask of you, young lady." Ashlea tensed up, not knowing what this pirate was thinking. "Take care of our captain, will ya? She can be a tad stubborn sometimes and doesn't know when she needs to take a break."

Ashlea looked at him for a minute, then to her blushing friend. "See, it's not just me who thinks that!" The dark skinned wizard then turned back to the crab. "I'll watch her. No worries. I've known Aurora since we were kids. She's a clever kid, but even she needs someone watching her back."

"This coming from the fireball who likes rushing in?"

"Cool it, Ice princess!"

The two continued arguing as they swam towards the rope that would lead them out of Crab alley. They even continued their banter as they climbed the rope. Bart laughed as his uncle looked at the two girls with concern.

"Tell me those two aren't actually destined to save the Spiral, Bart. Please?"

"Hehe, they'll do fine, Uncle. Just have a little faith in my captain, will ya? Her friend ain't that bad either."


	33. Chapter 33

As the two wizards walked down the streets of Olde Town towards the Commons, an old lady noticed them and waved them over. The two shrugged and made their way over, wondering if she needed help.

"Good evening, ladies." Alura had to look at her watch to see if she was right. "Would you two be Aurora Dove and Ashlea Stone by any chance?"

Alura had a bad feeling, but nodded all the same. People usually didn't go looking for her without reason. Ashlea smiled. "Yeah, that's us."

"Oh, good. I have some items here for you two."

"How do you know our names… if you don't mind my asking." Aurora was in her cautious mode again.

"Hehe, worried eh? Don't be. Your father asked me to make some outfits for you, Aurora. He even was kind enough to give me the measurements and descriptions of you two, as well as your schools so I could make them just right for you."

"Wait, what!" Both girls were in shock. Aurora's father was dead! David Rubywielder and Jennifer Nightshade were both dead! That was the only fact about her parents that everyone was sure of! "Are you sure it was _my_ father, miss?"

"My name is Gloria Krendell, and I am as sure of that, Miss Dove, as I am assured that Miss Stone is a very powerful Pyromancer." She smiled kindly as she handed the two girls a bundle of clothes each. "Mr. Bones was quite specific as to the designs on yours and he had asked Mrs. Melody Stone for advice on what to put on your outfit, Ms. Stone." The two sighed in relief. Ms. Krendell thought that Bones was Dove's father. "Now you two had better get going. Headmaster Ambrose told me to tell you to stop on by if I see you. You both seem to be very popular."

"Eh, right. Thanks, Ms. Krendell." Ashlea then cast a teleportation spell on the two to bring them to the commons just outside the Headmaster's castle. Aurora was surprised to find her new outfit was now on and her old one was in her bag. Aurora now wore a Cowl of Obstruction, a Runed Cloak, and some boots of Frost. Ashlea now wore similar items, but Aurora couldn't identify them as they were from the school of Fire instead of the school of Ice.

The two made their way into the Headmaster's office just as a canine from Marelybone left. He was a pug with a bowler hat on his head and a medical bag. Aurora covered her face with her new cowl, hoping that he wouldn't recognize her. Much to Aurora's relief, Dr. Watson's mind was too occupied with something other than the two wizards who were entering the room.

"Ah, there you are, Ms. Dusksong and Ms. Firestone. I was wondering where you two were." Headmaster Ambrose said as they came into the room. "I was starting to worry that you would never come back."

"Sorry, we were a bit busy helping out on Crab Alley. They had some issues with the neighbors that needed to be sorted out." Aurora said diplomatically, as though there hadn't just been a coup to try and take over the kingdom.

Ambrose nodded. "I hope it wasn't too difficult."

The girls looked to each other and shrugged. "Not really." They chorused. Ambrose blinked in surprise at the two.

"Alright then… Considering all the excellent work you two have done here in Wizard city, I would like you both to go to Krokotopia."

"Isn't that where the Marelybone dig site is?" Aurora thought back, remembering an excavation that was going on. "Or did that end while I was… um…"

"No, it's still there. They are currently searching for the Krokonomicon, a powerful book that can supposedly bring back the dead." Ambrose informed the two as they took their seats in front of his desk. Aurora still had an edgy feeling; like Bones was somewhere in the room. If Watson was around, then it was likely Bones was nearby as well.

"So what do you want us doing over in Krokotopia?" Ashlea was curious as she also tried to sense if Bones was nearby. It was more of an Aurora skill, mainly because of her nose being over sensitive as well. Bones always smelled of chemicals in their opinion, but only Aurora could smell him from far off. Ashlea was able to tell what kind of chemicals the dog used while Aurora could only tell if it was poisonous or not for some reason.

"The latest reports seem to say something about the Krocks, an ancient race, coming back to life and trying to take over again. Ordinarily I wouldn't send such young wizards to help, but with you two there seems to be special circumstances. You both have helped out around the entirety of Wizard City, as well as other places from what I've heard of you **_both_**." The girls grimaced, one knowing half of what he meant, and the other knowing the whole story now. "I want you both to be careful however. There was a report of Malistare showing up there, searching for the Krokonomicon himself. I also want you both to see if you can help with the excavation site. I hear you both have experience with Marelybonians so this shouldn't be too much of a problem to understand their customs and deal with them." This got both girls to look at him like he was stupid.

"You do realize we're from Marleybone, right?" Aurora was the first to point it out as she brought out.

"Funny, you don't look like canines."

The girls groaned and made their way out of the old man's office. "We'll be in Krokotopia if something important that needs us happens…" Ashlea started.

"… so don't contact us unless for some bizarre reason it just has to be us you need." Aurora finished as she closed the door behind them, all worries of Bones being nearby lost in their irritation for the headmaster. "…and I thought that Avery was thick…" Aurora muttered under her breathe as they left the tower.

Meanwhile, still in the office of Professor Ambrose, a new figure comes out of hiding. "Was it really necessary to annoy them?" It was a tall brown blood hound with a pipe wearing a deerstalker and trenchcoat. He sat down in a chair just opposite of the headmaster. "You know they're still just children."

"Mr. Bones, I do believe you're being quite short minded. Ms. Firestone is one of our more advanced Pyromancers for her age of 19. While I am unsure of Ms. Dusksong's age, I am sure that she isn't too far off from her friend. The two of them have accomplished much since she arrived, making Ashlea Firestone more prone to working with others rather than preferring to work alone. I do believe they are both adults now."

"I know what they are age wise, but… curse my sentimental emotions, I suppose, but I still think of them as the two girls who ran around trying to solve cases with just a sling shot and wooden sword in hand, not fireballs and a staff with magic." Sherlock Bones sighed and shook his head. "Are you certain that they'll be fine in Krokotopia? The structure is different than from here in Wizard City, and…"

"When was the last time you actually talked to your daughter?"

"You mean my charge? I haven't talked to Aurora in person since the night she was kidnapped… I shouldn't have urged her to go. She wanted to stay at the flat… I should have trusted her instincts that there'd be trouble." Bones grumbled as he remembered the night well.

 ** _He had been laid up because of a poison that Meowiarty had shot him with. While Meowiarty had managed to barely escape with his life, Bones had fallen unconscious into the snowy ground as the poison took effect on the old hound. Aurora had managed to scar the cat as it ran with her own slingshot and stones, as her friend, Ashlea, was already at Ravenwood, and Dr. Watson was attending a medical conference in Mooshu. Aurora was all alone with her mentor, who was now unconscious in the snow, and poisoned through a dart in his shoulder. Aurora had dragged him back to their flat and tended to him, doing all she could to figure out the antidote to the poison and what it was in the first place. It had been the first time that Mrs. Hudson, the lady who owned the flat and rented it to the detectives, had seen the usually cheery child so serious without a case on hand, but then again, Bones had been the only family that Aurora knew of other than Milo, and he had disappeared when she was young. It had taken Aurora a whole day to figure out what the poison was and only another hour to create an antidote based off of her mentor and the doctor's notes. She had been so relieved when his breathing had finally evened out and he started talking. According to what she had read, he would be laid up for a whole week because of the poison. She had taken over the job of being the city's main detective during the week. Each night she came back tired, but satisfied at managing to help the people of Marelybone, though she desperately wished that she had her old partner to help her. She was still only fourteen after all. In the mailbox was an invitation to the Police Grand Ball. Bones usually went for a few minutes just to satisfy Officer McRuff and the rest of the Yardies. She talked to Bones about it, as it was a masquerade ball this time, and she had plenty of disguises she could use. Bones had noticed how tired she had become over the week and thought that she should go in his stead, at least to have some fun trying to figure out what everyone was thinking without it being necessary._**

 ** _Aurora had agreed, though reluctantly, that she should at the least keep the officers from having their pockets picked while they were distracted. She gave Bones a sleeping draught that would enable him to sleep peacefully throughout the night, not knowing that that would be the last time she saw her mentor for years to come._**

Bones shook his head out of the memory and smoked his pipe a little. Aurora had always hated the thought of him smoking, if only because she was sure he'd choke on that tobacco he so favored eventually. "At any rate, it's been a while. I doubt very much that Stormy Aurora Dove, or Alura Dusksong, would like to talk to me." His mind then wandered, most uncharacteristically, to the day he received a letter from Aurora.

 ** _He had been pacing about, trying to figure out where the blazes those robotic monsters called the Armada had taken his ward. He was also mentally cursing every officer who had just let it happen. His friend, Dr. Watson, had arrived the morning after the party to find Bones was still asleep from the sleeping draught and tucked in rather tightly on the couch by Aurora. Dr. Watson had been about to try and awaken the detective to alert him to what he had heard on his way back to Baker St. when the landlady informed him of the hound being poisoned and Aurora having put him on special medication. There was no way to go after Aurora by the time the dog had awakened, as he was still weak, and the officers of Scotland Yard were useless in figuring out where the Armada had taken her._**

 ** _About a month later, Bones was nearly killing himself with worry, trying to solve the usual cases by day to seem like he was fine, but then worrying about the child he had been in charge of for years when night fell. A letter brought him to a slight calm as Dr. Watson came running in with it in hand. "BONES! Bones, there's a letter for you! It's from Aurora!"_**

 ** _The Doctor had quickly handed over the envelope as Bones lit up with concern mixed with relief. He opened the letter and quickly recognized the writing, it was indeed his apprentice's writing._**

 ** _"Dear Sherlock Bones, and by extension everyone else,_**

 ** _It's me, Aurora Dove. I'm writing this letter to let you know I am fine. I was rescued and escorted to a school that wishes to help me with my natural talents even though I'm an orphan. Bones, I seem to have developed skills that need training in order to control. I do apologize for leaving you in such a state, but it was not my choice and now I seem to be dangerous without the proper training. Please forgive me for staying at this school. I hope you have gotten better. I will endeavor to send you letters as to my condition and status as I train. I have gained new associates already, and my teacher is very kind, though I still would rather be back at Baker St. with Ashlea by my side and the two of us trailing after your coattails for a good case._**

 ** _Sincerely yours, Aurora Dove._**

 ** _Bones sighed in relief as he slumped down into his favorite chair. "Thank god, she's fine…" He checked the address from which the letter was mailed and smirked. "Skull Island, eh? Just like her mother…"_**

Bones sighed as her pushed the memories aside. It was always amazing how people thought he was devoid of emotions, only to find that he was sincerely worried about people that were close to him.

"I understand your concern, but maybe just talking to her will ease both your minds." Ambrose suggested as the dog stood up.

"Maybe, but maybe not. It might make her upset, and I don't want that. Thank you for the chat, and I'll look into things on my end. Between the lot of us, Malistare shall be caught soon."

"Good."


	34. Chapter 34

Bones had made his way through the city and back to the great tree where the World gate was hidden. He had hoped not to run into Aurora, as he feared that she didn't like him for not going after her all those years ago. Dr. Watson had already headed back to Marelybone earlier, leaving the detective behind in Wizard City. Watson had been nervous about doing this because it was starting to seem that trouble followed the detective almost every time he was left alone, though that might have just been the hazards of the job or pure coincidence.

Bones felt a chill run up his spine as he entered the tree where the gate was hidden. He saw Ashlea and Aurora talking. Ashlea handed off what looked like a letter to the blonde ice wizard as the two smiled and talked. After a few minutes, Ashlea gave off an imitation salute to the blonde who responded in kind before the dark skinned wizard disappeared through the gate.

No one else was in the tree and there was definitely a feeling of uncomfortableness with the way the ice wizard seemed to be staring at the pillar behind which Bones was currently trying to hide. He had never felt this uncomfortable around the girl before, or anyone for that matter. It was just strange.

"Bones? That you?"

Bones froze. 'How the devil does she do that? Even after all this time?'

"Please… I'm tired of talking to the wind… there's not even a wind in here. Please come out of hiding and talk to me…" She sounded so frail, so weak, like she was still a little girl! She was tired.

Bones sighed. He couldn't deny her a talk. He felt like he owed her for failing to protect her after all. She had been sent off to become a pirate because he hadn't been able to save her. He was supposed to be responsible for her. He stepped out from behind the pillar and walked up to the young thaumaturge. She was crying? But she had been smiling when talking to Ashlea just a minute ago… "Hello, Dove."

"Heh, Hello, Bones." Aurora gave him a brief hug, knowing how uncomfortable he was about showing emotions in public. "It's been a while." She led him over to a bench that was placed near the gate. There were four surrounding the gate.

"Yes… it has." He found himself shocked at having such a hard time hiding his emotions. He mentally cursed himself for feeling like this and wondered why he felt like this in the first place. "Are you alright?" He supposed it was something to do with Aurora, she always made people act differently, though usually in a good way, and he had taken care of her as a child after all.

"Heh, I left ya recovering from a poison. I'm just grateful that you're fine." Aurora smirked a sad half smile that seemed wistful.

Bones clenched his fists as he looked down at his paws. "…sorry…"

"Why?"

"I was supposed to take care of you, and more often than not, you got into trouble because I was too busy with a case… then you got kidnapped… and, well…" It was rare to find the canine detective flustered about anything.

"Heh, no worries."

"No worries? Aurora, you were kidnapped! I woke up to find Dr. Watson had returned and had been informed you had been kidnapped because the entire Scotland Yard had somehow become intoxicated and couldn't even lift a pistol!"

Aurora grimaced as she looked over to the dog. "Bones… that's a slight exaggeration…" Aurora then proceeded to explain what had happened that night at the party all those years ago, as it was a night she wouldn't soon forget…

 ** _Aurora had been dressed in her pirate disguise, an old Hollow's Eve costume that had been updated to fit her current size. She walked in and mingled with the officers, explaining that Bones would be back on the streets by Monday morning no doubt, which brought a brighter light to the party. She avoided all alcohol, saying that she was too young, which was true, but also because it stank in her opinion. She may have been fourteen, but she was definitely a lady with an opinion. She was on the alert when she noticed some strange newcomers were among the crowd. These creatures, if one could even call them that, were robotic like the clockwork golems that roamed the rooftops, but seemed to be military oriented by the looks of their design. Asking around the elder officers, Aurora learned of them to be called "The Armada", a group of soldiers that had been made to fight in a long ago war. Aurora made her way through the crowd to try and leave but stopped when she heard the armada robots making fun of people and some drunk ones flirting. 'How the hay does a bot get drunk anyway?' Aurora made her way to one very rude bot and told him to shove off._**

 ** _"A Pirate!" The bot called out as he brought out his sword. Aurora did the only thing she could think of and brought out her own dagger that she rarely ever used._**

 ** _"En Guarde!" Aurora muttered as she blocked the sword from cutting her. 'Not how I wanted to spend the night… darn constables had to get drunk…' Aurora managed to disarm the bot and dispatch the few that had joined it. She then decided to leave the party._**

 ** _On her way home, she ran into the robots once more, only this time they had brought a friend; Deacon, the Spymaster of the Armada! "What do we have here?"_**

 ** _"A young lady coming back from a costume party, sir." Aurora was curt, but still retained her manners. She was a lady after all. "I am Ms. Dove, ward of Mr. Bones. I'm afraid he's ill at the moment and I am needed at the house."_**

 ** _Out of the shadows a creepy laugh came. "Oh-ho, I wouldn't listen to her if I were you. Mr. Bones is most likely dead by now. That snip of a girl couldn't cure him of the poison, of that I'm sure."_**

 ** _"Meowiarty!" Aurora growled like a dog as she drew her dagger and got into a defensive position. "What are you doing here?"_**

 ** _The ragged looking mad scientist came out of the shadows. "See what I mean, she's a pirate, isn't she?"_**

 ** _Aurora's eyes widened in shock as she realized what the cat was up to. "You Cat! How dare you!"_**

 ** _It was too late though. Three of the armada bots had grabbed her and disarmed her. Deacon didn't look like he believed it fully it though. He walked up to the girl and lifted her chin so as to get a better look at her face. "Hmm… Dove eh? I knew a Dove once. Ruthless creature, earned her name well. I'd wager you were a swashbuckler by the stance you had."_**

 ** _"I was learning fencing from my master." Aurora muttered._**

 ** _"Hmmm… you've done your part, Meowiarty. We'll handle her from here." He sneered as he ordered the bots to take her away. "Take this pirate to the brig, gentlemen."_**

 ** _"Let me go! You won't get away with this! I've done nothing wrong!" Aurora then did something strange and started howling like a dog. It was a signal to alert the Irregulars in the area that there was trouble and that they needed the police. She noticed some shadows moving, but knew that they wouldn't find a constable that wasn't drunk in time to save her. She just hoped that someone would take care of Bones and tell him she was sorry. He couldn't help her now. No one could. Aurora Dove was on her own._**

"… and then while on the ship, just a while later, I was rescued and started to make my own crew. That was when I managed to send that first letter." Aurora sighed as she explained everything.

Bones nodded as he processed all of the information. Meowiarty had done this. It was no one's fault but the cat. While relieved that his ward wasn't harmed in any of the traumatic events, and that she was indeed skilled in multiple things, he still had a feeling that he had let her down.

"Oh, and get this, I found Uncle Milo!"

"Oh?" Bones looked at the young adult with some surprise. "Well that's good at least…"

"Bones…" Aurora looked at him with that understanding look. The one that made her seem older. It still seemed wrong on her face to have the look of a mother when she was only so young. "Thanks for taking care of me. I honestly don't think I'd have made it this far without you… so don't go beating yourself up on something that wasn't your fault, alright?" She was back in her humorous mood, making the detective chuckle a little.

"Alright. I suppose I'll see you later then."

"Yep, oh, and before I forget, Ash wanted me to stop by the post office and send this to her mom, but since you're here, can you just deliver it for me?"

"Do I look like the postman?"

"Nope, you look like a kicked dog with that face. Cheer up. Everything worked out in the end." She smirked as she handed the letter over to the dog who raised her.

"Very well, but do remember that though you may now be about to turn nineteen, that you are still a child in my books, young lady."

"Heh, yeah, I remember. I also know you should lighten up. You seem more tense than the last time I saw you. Meowiarty still causing trouble?"

"Yes, unfortunately. We'll get him yet though."

"Good." With that, Alura stood up and straightened out her robes. "I'll stop by when I'm allowed a spiral key that'll get me to Marelybone. We'll get that cat and stop all this madness. Just keep faith, eh?" Alura smiled as she walked over to the gate and disappeared into a yellow light, signaling that she had made it to Krokotopia.

Bones just shook his head and smiled as he made his own way through the gate and ended up in the middle of Marelybone. "Something about those two always seems to lighten my spirits." He chuckled as he made his way to Baker St…. after he dropped off the letter to Mrs. Stone of course…


	35. Chapter 35

Alura looked around and found herself in a pyramid like structure as she exited the portal. 'It must be to keep sand from being blown in.' She smirked as she made her way up past the mander that greeted her. She smiled back and replied warmly enough. While never having seen a mander before, she knew of the race from the books she had encountered around the Spiral on them. They were a race of lizards that were too generous for their own good, making themselves slaves to the race of the Kroks by accident.

As she left the small pyramid structure, she looked around the oasis that she was in the middle of. She looked in her bag and pulled out an old bandana that she used to wear as a kid. She lowered her hood and placed the bandana on her head, tying the knot, and then pulling it down and adjusting it so that it was able to be pulled up over her face to protect her from the sands. She then placed her hood back over her face and started off towards the little shops that had placed themselves around the oasis. She found Ashlea was talking to Sgt. Talbot, a canine who was in charge of the excavation. Aurora smirked as she adjusted her gear and checked for her old waterskin. She'd need to figure out where the best water source was in the area, or she'd die of dehydration. She smirked at the site of a well on a nearby floating island in between some of the other shops. 'There we go, perfect.'

Ashlea noticed her blonde friend and waived her over. "Dove, over here!" It was clear that while among their own countrymen, so to speak, that they'd be calling each other by their original names.

"Ah, Stone, there you are." Alura grimaced as she found herself slip so easily into her original accent that was native to Marelybone.

Ashlea rolled her eyes. "Had a good talk with Bones?" They had realized that the detective would show up momentarily after finishing his own conversation with the headmaster. Ashlea had actually convinced Alura to stay behind so that they could talk.

"Yes, I'd say things are settled fine…" She muttered wishing silently that she had been able to actually spend a little more time with the dog and go home for a little bit at least. "So, what's the case here?"

"Sgt. Talbot says that he has men looking for the Krokonomicon and the Order of the Fang."

"Order of the Fang?"

The British sounding dog nodded. "Indeed, said to be the wisest of the Kroks that were actually on the side of justice, allowing the Manders to live in peace. A few Manders were also rumored to be among their ranks. They fought against the Kroks and sealed them away with the help of the Krokonomicon."

"Huh, alright then. What shall we do to help out around here though?" Dove muttered more to herself as she tried to survey the land. Sandstorms and pyramids for miles, as well as a few other structures on the other nearby islands.

"Ah, yes, I'd like you both to check up on my men in the Pyramid of Fire." Sgt. Talbot pointed to the large pyramid that was behind him. "See they seem to have some issues with some of the artifacts and some defenses that have popped up."

"Of course." The two girls chorused once more as they started towards the pyramid.

"What are you betting on being the main problem, Stone?"

"Hypnotized Manders? Serving the Kroks?"

"Huh, interesting… I'm thinking golems. That's an ancient magic, isn't it?"

"Yep,… we're going to find both aren't we, Dove?"

"Without a doubt."

"Shit…"

"We'll probably find that too… mummified of course." Dove grimaced as Stone made gagging noises.

"Lovely."


End file.
